Phantasm of Oriense
by Brionacs
Summary: In the history of the land of Oriense, many stories of epic warriors and heartwarming loves soared inside the tales. And 'tis but one of them. /MR A2 Medieval AU/
1. Overture : Waterfalls of Bloods

**Well damn, I just couldn't help myself to not to write this one as a certain someone inspired me to write a medieval AU of Type-0. Aaaand here you go! First medieval AU of Type-0!**

**Final Fantasy Type-0 and its' characters belong to Square Enix.**

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**Phantasm of Oriense**

_"In the history of the land dubbed as Oriense, many stories of epic warriors and heartwarming loves soared inside the tales. And 'tis is but one of it…"_

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_Overture : Waterfalls of Bloods  
_

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To say that the Kingdom of Byakko was a peaceful country was no understatement. The prosperities of the land were top notch, the citizens weren't able to find any better heaven than the spot they were landing on, and the militaries were something more than war elites. Needless to say, the kingdom's reputation exceeded every reputations ever held by both living and non-living matter in the world. Under the name of King Godfrey of the House of Kunagiri, the land was certainly the safest haven one could have. Justice was served, and villainy was taken care of.

Until you take into the account that one day, the trail of history changed drastically. The traitorous little brother of the just king had ripped the king's throat literally. The queen was no more fortunate, for she was slain tragically just after another minute when her husband had laid on the carpet lifelessly.

The said little brother was named Cid Kunagiri, born as Cid Aulstyne. The cruel and greedy tyrant was the closest human that was able to be correlated to a demon. Enacting a wicked laugh, the adult kicked the two royal corpses beneath his feet and issued another other: Kill the runaway sons of the Kunagiri.

Fortunately for the younger son, he was able to survive from the ordeal, by sacrificing his older brother. The bigger one, however, had happily done that for the safety of his little angel. Thus, the younger Kunagiri clenched his tearful eyes and mindlessly ran with all his might, towards any places that was not this land with the bloodied soil. No, even that wasn't enough, he had to cover his ears with his hand so that his brother's agonizing scream didn't reach his hearing. Why did he do this? Why did he run away to live on his own when his brother, father and mother were killed mercilessly?

Because he, Machina Kunagiri, was a coward.

With the stamina that no ten years old boy should have possessed, the young boy let his small legs take care of the rest. His journey was endless; the grim scenery, the dying people that he passed through, the hotness of the crimson flames… everything was looping itself in front of his green eyes. Until he reached the boundaries that connected the two biggest kingdoms: The Beast Kingdom of Byakko and The Fiery Kingdom of Suzaku.

And then Machina's tears were depleted, along with his stamina. His body simply skidded down like a used log.

…

Five years later, Machina was slowly raising his ranking in the Knighthood of Phoenix's ladder. It was an unexplainable wonder on how a fifteen years old brat was able to defeat those who ranked lieutenant already. It was very explainable however, if you took the fact that Kunagiri's bloodlines were gods of battlefield, for as long as there were swords in their hands and death by their hearts, into the custody. Machina was no joke, indeed.

After that one tragic day, the young prince was taken into the orphanage of the small village of Kingdom of Suzaku called Makutai by patrolling soldiers. Of course, Machina never told anybody his family name and faked it by stating that he suffered from amnesia, for he acknowledged already that the news of the evil rebellion led by Cid on his country would soon reached the ears of Suzakus. It was a no brainer that that would work as a decent reasoning for everyone, if not for the fact that a boy named Ace was there as well.

Ace was Machina's childhood friend, a young prodigy who mastered the four elemental magic on his seventh birthday. Back then, that talent of his was not left unnoticed by the country's military, and the boy was soon enlisted under them, as magicks were not something that one could find, and fight these days. Ten years old Ace was rather introverted, yes, but when he was put under the direct care of King Godfey, he soon warmed up to everyone else, mainly the two young brothers of the House of Kunagiri. Whether Ace looked at them as a friend or a warrior was not important, for he was terrifically loyal to them either way. His happy days however, was put to an end when the whole member of the House of Kunagiri was massacred brutally, and Ace, still breathing, was thrown to a river by the remaining loyal knights of Godfrey.

It was no attempt to kill him. In fact, it was an effort from the knights to kept Ace survives from this whole blasphemy. He was their mascot, a lonely and cute boy who deserved to have a brighter ending than this. Against Ace's determination to fight, he was harshly shoved to the river that was connected to the sea of the land of Suzaku. He cried in rejection, watched as the Byakko's gentle knights were smiling at him as his body was edged away from them. Ace was no dumb, he could decipher the message they were sending at him with ease despite the situation he was in: They were ordering him to stay alive. Soon, he was drowned on the thick layers of waters, and when he was awake, he found himself in an orphanage in Makutai.

Ace cried for days, weeks even, cursing his liability. Until he found out Machina Kunagiri was still alive, once again in the same room as him.

The two boys didn't waste any time to share a brotherly hug for they had no one else that they recognized at that point. Embracing each other, they promised each other that they would protect each other's back till the end, until that bastard Cid Aulstyne was dead.

Soon enough, report about Machina's skill had gone into the ears of the higher-ups. The king Khalia Chival summoned him and he attended. The moment Machina kneeled before the king under his steel armor, a feeling of nostalgia soon dwelled inside him. He couldn't do any eyes-locking with the king as it was improper for a mere knight to do so with a king, but he could feel the warmness that the king emitted. It was just like five years prior, it's the same warmth that his father used to give him. If Machina didn't wear his helmet on, he was pretty sure everyone could see the single tear that passed his eyes.

Machina wasn't wrong. The king of the Kingdom of Suzaku was no different that his father. He was kind and wise, he was gallant, and he was loved by his people. What made it way more amazing than he was right now, the king even trusted him to be his granddaughter's personal bodyguard.

And it was the day when everything started.

Machina was soon enveloped by the brightness of the gigantic castle of Suzaku as he found himself standing in front of Princess Rem's door for the first time. He gulped nervously, he heard rumors about the young royal's amazing beauty when he was still stationed in the damp barrack. Furthermore, words also aired that she was around the same age as him as well. Despite all his focus on stopping Cid Aulstyne, he couldn't help but let that question swam in his mind.

His question was answered gloriously when the most breathtaking creature he had ever seen opened the door. She had strawberry-colored hair that fell to her shoulders, and seemed to flash with bright gold in the light. Her deep crimson eyes seemed to glow with a hidden light of their own. Unexpectedly, Machina found himself drawn through them into the girl's soul, into the pool of pain and sorrow that resided there. The boy found himself seized with an irresistible urge to hold the slender, delicate girl to his body, and kiss away all the pain from her heart. But he quickly reigned in the foolish thought.

Princess Rem did not consider her life to be anything spectacular... Her parents were dead, and she missed them horribly. She hated the war that happened, even in the places that wasn't her land. And she loved her grandfather, but he was often too busy taking care of the land's prosperity to notice her discomfort, although she didn't really mind that too much. The young princess was always smiling and cheerful, and she always had a kind word for everyone she saw, whether they be a high ranking lord, or a lowly servant. These facts made her life quite spectacular indeed, but spectacular or not there was one thing that was true about her life...It was not the happiest one, though she worked very hard to keep this hidden.

The night before, king Khalia said to Rem already that she was going to have a personal bodyguard on her own. Rem wasn't too happy about this, she was already tortured with the fact that wars were brewing on the other land already and her grandfather decided not to send any troops to help stopping the war.

That was at first, though. That morning, Rem was expecting a fat, burly and old soldier as her new bodyguard, instead she was presented with something way more shocking. The boy was scarcely older than she was, maybe even the same age as her, but he was tall for his age, and well built. And the simple armor he wore made him seem older. But the way his messy dark blue hair fell about his head marked him with a distinctly child-like quality. And then there were his eyes. They were colored with the color of a rough emerald, and they seemed to reflect all the horrors the boy had seen, all the pain he had felt, but behind it all they shone with a hope, the kind of which would never die. At that moment Rem wanted nothing else in the world but to grab hold of him and cry into his chest, sure of the loving embrace that would soon follow. But she took hold of her feelings just as sternly as Machina had, for she knew they could never be anything but a fantasy. She was a princess, and he was a slave, and to even think of such a thing warranted death.

But some things happen no matter how hard you try to stop them, and the princess and the boy who was to guard her life fell in love that day.

And after another five year, this story reached one of its climaxes…

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**Inspired by a talk with Crystallium after a long, amazing roleplaying. You see, Ace symbolized 'trust' and he gave me an idea of how amazing would it be if Ace is a knight who works under Machina. Without a doubt, he is definitely the most loyal knight one could ever dream of xD. Also, Prince Machina sounds so awesome.**

**This story is –hopefully- already fully planned. There'll be a lot of romances and actions involved, with some fantasies element here and there. Let's take magick for example, they can do it here, but there isn't a lot of magiteck armor or monsters in general. Unfortunately, I have to give a sad heads-up : Not ALL of Class Zero will make an appearance here. This fic is nothing but the 'prelude' arc. Yes, I've even planned a sequel for this one already, which you can bet all of them will make an appearance there.**

**Another heads-up, this one is going to have a lot of POV switching. In fact, there're three main characters with three main pairings in this arc. Who are they? Feel free to guess while I write the next chapter.**


	2. Verse I : The Path We Tread

**Final Fantasy Type-0 and its characters belongs to Square Enix. I only owns the crappy plot of this fic.**

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_Verse I : The Path We Tread_

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Machina crossed his arms tightly behind his back as he stood wordlessly outside of the king's chamber. A mournful sigh escaped his lips as he remembered what just recently happened. The King, Khalia Chival, had fallen ill. Royal doctors were called from all over the country, but not even one had succeeded to heal him. It was past time everyone realized the fact, the king was slowly dying of his old age.

His lovely granddaughter would always visit him both in the morning and in the night worriedly. Yet Princess Rem never shed any tears, not in front of his sickly figure. She would put on a smile to reassure him that she was doing okay, and the whole kingdom was waiting for his recovery. To that, King Khalia would reply with another smile, albeit that was a forced one. To reassure him more, Rem would always add a story of her expertise on handling the people's well-being. That was not a made-up story, of course, for Rem had actually shown her caring nature for any living being in the peaceful land. She was starting to show her light as a legal inheritor of the king.

However, Machina wasn't able to accept the fact as easy as his beautiful master. He was always looking forward to see the day Rem Chival would rule the country with love and peace, yes, but he was very attached to the wise king as well. King Khalia always showered him with fatherly love, assuming him as his family than a mere knight. And to that, Machina always repaid all his kindness by showing his loyalty and strength under his name in the quest of justice. King Khalia Chival was Machina's second father, and there were no exaggerations in that.

His reminiscing was cut when the door beside him opened, and the young Princess stepped out from the chamber, an anxious sigh from her mouth soon followed. Machina merely narrowed his eyes in dolor at Rem's figure. Oh, how Machina hated himself so much right now for being so weak and he wasn't able to comfort her in any sort of way. His mind suggested him to just cover her fragile body with his arms, embracing her and let her cry on his shoulder, but he made no actual attempt to do that, for he knew his place as a knight.

Warily, the princess turned her head at Machina's direction. She didn't need to say a single words, Machina could see it already from her eyes: Princess Rem was suffering more than ever. Yet, with her tiny body she still managed to suppress all the sorrow inside, even if she wasn't doing the best job in that. Rem opened her mouth to speak, hanging it open for one short second before she closed it again. After she decided that it was for the best at the moment to not to met her knight's eyes, she exasperatedly opened her lips again.

"Bodyguard, we will leave."

"It is your will, my princess."

He tried his best to cheer her up by adding a soft smile on his lips as he bowed in respect at her. Fortunately, while not as much as he was expecting, it was working a little. Princess Rem managed a weak smile of her own. That response soothed Machina's heart a lot. She was an epitome of an angel, and her smile was that of a living angel's quality.

Rem politely bowed at the direction of her grandfather from outside of the room, silently wishing him to get well soon, before the princess closed the door and she turned on her heel again, her loyal bodyguard followed closely behind her. Departing from the king's chamber, the two walked through the brown-themed hall.

No words were exchanged between them, and the only sound that was accompanying them was their muffled footsteps. Silence worked better than anything else at this very moment, especially on Rem's part. For the whole twenty years of her life, Princess Rem was always close to King Khalia without any doubt. Whenever she visited him, even on his busiest moment, her grandfather would always spare a time to pause his work and smiled at her warmly. She had long acknowledged that when she was in her fifteen that Khalia didn't smile at her as often as when she was younger, but he would still always did that should there was an opportunity to did so.

The relationship between the princess and her knight, however, was way more complex than that. It was no mere friendship nor it was mere platonic. It was a love at its' best, where even fairytales' romance stories were put in shame in comparisons to their own.

After those five years, Machina Kunagiri had grown into a very respectable and personable knight. While still harboring a deep hatred against Cid Aulstyne, that part of his personalities was tad overshadowed by the sole duty of him: Protecting Princess Rem from any sort of danger. He had thrown away every sign of him being the sole survivor of the House of Kunagiri, going through the rest of his life as a warrior of Knighthood of Phoenix of Suzaku's Kingdom. Thus, rumor about the possible survivor of Kunagiri was as good as fact at this very moment, and Machina was sure even Cid wouldn't be able to figure that he was still alive. He played silent, not going into any possible conflict by spending his time with his current master.

Rem herself never treated Machina as a mere knight, or a mere bodyguard at that matter. The dark haired knight might not realize it, but whenever she smiled at him, it was entirely a different type of smile. It wasn't the comforting smile that she was giving at her grandfather. It wasn't the kind smile that she was giving at her people. It was a smile of her deepest feeling as a woman, the one that stood above all of them.

Every time she said 'Bodyguard', she claimed that she loved him. And every time he replied with either a single bow or a 'Yes, Princess', he implied that he loved her back. It was astonishing on how they were able to keep their relationship as a princess and her knight still against all the longing feelings to have each other in a different light.

By the time they reached Rem's bedroom, the princess gracefully slipped her hand on the doorknob, still not able to met Machina's eyes directly without any remorse.

"Bodyguard." Her voice was hoarse, collapsing even. "Do not wander too far from here."

"I will not, my princess."

Machina gave another bow as an agreement to Rem's wish as she entered her private chamber. Her line just now was rather out of character and extraordinary for her, but it didn't even surprise Machina for a second. She was very distressed, she needed a shoulder to lean on, yet she didn't ask for one for it was her obligation to stay strong even in the darkest moment. She didn't want Machina to leave her side, yet she basically ordered him not to see her fragile side by keeping her company, mitigated by a layer of a door between them. Machina understood that very well.

The knight stared at the door in silence for a while, before a groan of frustration was out of his mouth. He kept it as low and as fast as possible so that nobody noticed his action. The once prince of Byakko then returned to his usual state, standing still for a while.

"You can come out now."

Unfortunately, there would always be a single person who managed to notice every little inch of his actions. Even Rem, despite her frequent observations on her bodyguard, wasn't able to see through him as good as him.

From behind one of the firm pillar of the hall, a figure crossed his arms silently. Dressed in his usual attire that consisted of bright, silver-colored long coat and pants with the same color, Ace emerged. Straightening his arms, the blonde walked toward Machina defenselessly.

If Machina's growths were to be addressed as 'amazing', then Ace's needed to be called as 'super amazing'. Ace was never born with any traces of noble bloods inside him, thus he never possessed any natural-born talent that was said to be inherited under the bloods of those royals. Yet, for the past five years, Ace polished his abilities so sharp that his abilities were widely known by the whole Oriense. He, unlike Machina, wasn't working for the knights anymore, instead he worked by himself. Under a nickname of 'The Caller', he was named one of the deadliest assassin from Suzaku.

Also the most elegant one. That's the sole reason why he was always wearing those bright clothes, for he wanted his enemies acknowledged the lights and its' beauty in their deaths.

"I am very sorry for reaching you at this sad moment." Ace bowed politely as soon as he was not too far from Machina, before continuing his words. "But I require a conversation with you as soon as possible, my lord."

Machina quirked an eyebrow at Ace's usage of his title. Sure, he didn't say it out loud, but he was implying it and Machina worried that Princess Rem might overheard that by accident. Should Ace didn't sound pretty damn serious about this, Machina would question that. Crossing his arms calmly, Machina stared intently at his best friend. "Continue."

"Bandits." Ace slipped his arm into the inside of his coat as Machina narrowed his green eyes at him questioningly. As Ace took his hand out again with something in it, he passed that thing at his prince, his expression turned more serious. "…Or at least that's what I thought at first."

As Machina grabbed the piece of clothes that Ace threw at him, he then proceeded to take a good look at it. When the picture that was drawn on the cloth piqued his memories, his narrowed eyes were widening. It didn't even need to be colored fully for Machina to realize what was in his hand right now.

It was a flag of the Kingdom of Byakko.

Since two years ago, the words about the tyranny of the new king of the beast country reached the ears of Suzakus. And the many attempts of Byakko to attack Suzaku weren't put into the math yet. War erupted, countless soldier were sent and obliterated. Machina stayed in the castle to protect the residents of the castle at that time while Ace joined the fights. It was horrible, chaotic even. Sure, Ace managed to carve his name enigmatically on the White Tiger Order, the elite squad of the enemy country, at that moment, but what the Suzakus gained weren't as much as what they lost.

Despite the enemy force's liability to reach his standing spot, Machina was livid. What had happened to Byakko? Kunagiri's country? _His_ country?

King Khalia put a direct order to just retaliate at that moment against the White Tiger Order's offense without any form of reciprocation, waiting for at the right moment to launch a counter attack. Unfortunately, there wasn't any chance to do that, since they retreated right away after a week of attacks. Needless to say, Suzaku still kept their guards up as there was a possibility of that silly action was naught but a brilliant tactic of them.

Turned out that they were indeed retreating. Not denying that their country still needed to keep their eyes open, the Knighthood of Phoenix's elites were stationed as the frontlines. For days, weeks, and months, until yesterday, where their defenses were not as tight as that day. The day where the barrage of attacks was just finished.

"I require your permission to do an investigation." Ace sternly said, saluting his superior politely. "Perhaps they are already around Rubrum, my prince."

Instead of quickly answering, Machina's eyes narrowed at Ace. "Refrain from calling me with that title, Ace." Machina turned on his heel, letting Ace stared at nothing but his back that was decorated with a fiery red cape. "There's no one with royal blood here but Princess Rem who is just behind this door."

"I follow no one's order but yours."

Ace's interruption brought a slightest frustration on Machina's mind. Ace's loyalty was amazing, but there were some times when he shouldn't bring that matter up.

"Yuuki." The dark haired knight growled lowly, glaring intently at the blonde. "Do I need to repeat myself?"

Yuuki.

That's right. His true name. The true identity of Ace The Caller. The name that nobody else but Machina knew. The only thing from Ace's past that he hadn't thrown away, his true name… Yuuki, or in ancient language could be translated as 'Valor' or 'Bravery'. Still, he didn't exactly like to be called by that name, for he was prouder with Ace, the one name that terrorized his enemy just by hearing it passes through their ears.

And the unsaid fact that Machina would only address him with that if he was in a particular foul mood.

Ace's eyes twitched a bit at that. "Please do not address me with that name, my liege."

"I will at the moment you stop addressing me so formal."

"Is that an order?"

"If it'll stop you from doing so, yes."

They both smiled after that. No matter what happened, there would always be some jokes that only the two of them could understand and got amused at. Ace sighed in happiness once before he crossed his arms again, reverting to his usual expression.

"Your answer."

Machina touched his chin with his clenched right hand, its thumb tapped the skin repetitively. He was sure this was one of the fittest moments to attack this place if he were in his enemy's place. Sending any defender would do some good, yet what should he do in anticipation if it was a trap set by Cid? Like an ambush, perhaps?

"…Three days." Machina mused thoughtfully. "I'll give you three days."

Ace put on his own thinking gesture for a while before he replied with a small nod. The silver coated man spun his whole figure counterclockwise 180 degrees and proceeded to make his beeline out of the enormous hall.

"Ace."

As Machina's words echoed in his ears, Ace stopped dead in his track. Still, he didn't turn his face at the young prince. He stayed still, waiting for his friend to finish his sentence.

"Do not die."

The corner of Ace's lips edged into a smirk. He held his hand up to wave back at Machina confidently, continuing his steps without turning around even a millimeter.

"Comprehended."

Machina let Ace left the room first before curled his fist into a ball. The young warrior then clenched his teeth in regret. It irked him a lot that he always needed to send his best friend away to do the dirty jobs for him. What made it harder was that Ace always obeyed him without any protest. Even though they were both residents of Suzaku now, Ace would never acknowledge his own place as a man that was not a warrior under Machina Kunagiri. Ace's loyalty was very commendable that it hurt Machina. The now bodyguard of Princess Rem never once wanted to shackle his partner's life with his hardships.

…

Calmly stepping on the hard concrete of the Capital of Rubrum, Ace made his way toward his meeting point. It was a peaceful afternoon with comforting clouds all over the sky, yet what rhymed on Ace's ears and eyes were nothing remotely beautiful. His eyes already imagined the pool bloods that he would soon witness before him and his ears already captured the initial cadence of his enemy's scream of misery. It was never a nice feeling even for him, but it was something that he should, and would always do.

For Yuuki was a warrior whose nests were at the fiery battlefields.

Of course, Ace was always a cautious man. He did not initiate any mission without a deep, proper planning. Just like this one, where he would sit idly on the bench by the Central Plaza before anything else, companied only by the sound of rustling waters of the beautiful fountain and waited for her to arrive.

The blonde was throwing pieces of breads to the small birds that lodged around the place blankly when a hooded figure approached him. Cutting his current activity, Ace raised a single eyebrow at the figure when the said person removed the hood, unrevealing strands of flaming auburn hairs that covered the delicate head. Ace gazed at her expressionless as the girl sat tiredly beside him.

"Cater." Ace grabbed another piece of bread, resuming his latest action. "You're late."

"Jeez, give me a break." The short haired girl replied. She crossed her arms behind her head, an exhausted sigh followed soon. "Can't a girl get her beauty nap for another ten minutes?"

Albeit not from the same orphanage as Machina and Ace, Cater was another orphan as well. She was just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill girl in general, especially if you didn't count her information networks and her agility, which was often said to be as fast as a chocobo. If you did however, consider her to be an extraordinaire without any understatement, for she was a girl of surprise. Ace didn't know her well enough to knew the reason of why she wanted to share her information with him, or everyone else in general, but he trusted her enough to not to stab him in the back. It was a life or death matter when it came to communicating with him, anyway. Everybody could see that messing with Ace was nothing sort of a manner that one wanted to pull.

"You got the answer to what I asked the other day?" Putting back the bread into his silver-colored coat's pocket, he plainly asked her, ignoring Cater's complaint much to the girl's chagrin.

Cater groaned a little, taking a piece of a pleated paper from her violet-themed skirt. Lazily, she put that paper on the small gap of the bench that separated their skins from touching. In an elegant manner that was always with him, Ace calmly grabbed the paper, putting it on his own pocket. He would read that soon, but not before expressing his gratitude.

"You have my thanks, Cater." As Ace pulled his hand from his pocket, what was on his hand was not the paper anymore, it was a bag of Gils. He politely passed it at Cater, who grinned contently when she accepted the small bag with her small hands.

"Don't mention it! Also, you're the best, Ace." She smiled cheerfully at Ace, in which the blonde smiled back as Cater put the bag of money into her backpack. After flexing her muscles from her current seat for a bit, she continued. "By the way, how's Princess Rem doing? I heard that she's not faring very well with His Majesty's condition."

Ace grabbed back the piece of paper, opening and reading its content while taking a notice at Cater's question. Before anything else, he deciphered Cater's message on the paper. She wrote the exact details of the small, hidden path to the Yuhanra Region, along with a decently drawn map as an inset; there was also a small footnote slipped along with the paper. Inwardly smiling at Cater's superb ability to inform him, Ace took all of the information into his account before he folded it back and returned it to his pocket, turning the rest of his attention to answer Cater's question.

"I can't say for sure." He weakly shook his head. "Lord Machina might know, but I did not trouble him with that question since he didn't seem to be very accepting of the king's health as well."

Addressing him simply as 'Lord Machina' already gave a bad taste on Ace's tongue. Even though it was an attempt to hide the Byakko's prince's true identity, it still didn't feel right for him to call him that way. Not even noticing Ace's thought, Cater let out another sigh of frustration, before her face lit up a bit as if she was reminded of something.

"You know, I heard that there's a good physician in Korushi once." Cater tapped her forehead, mixture of both sure and unsure on her face. "Perhaps it will do us good to take a visit there. And by 'us' I mean 'you do it by yourself', Ace."

A frown was summoned on Ace's face. The male was about to say something when Cater continued her sentences.

"You're passing through Korushi to get to Yuhanra, anyway."

Still frowning, Ace did a double take at the note that Cater gave him. As Ace read it subtler, he needed to crosses Korushi Cave and then Korushi Town to get to Yuhanra Region, indeed. After a moment, he put the note back into his pocket again.

"I won't." Ace said with a matter-of-fact tone. "I'll stay in the woods. It'll reduce the chance of getting spotted by Byakko's military, presuming there are some of them already passed the border of Suzakus."

What Ace said was indeed correct. It was his way of living. He communicated with villagers if only he needed something, be it information, rations, or anything else. Aside of that, The Caller would be out of their sight, for his name was very infamous everywhere without any exception; most people would run just by sighting the silver lining of his clothes. Ace didn't mind, though. Working alone was his chronicle. Ace was a solitary, lone wolf, after all.

Ace was pretty sure that Cater almost let out her objection, but she shooed any words from her tongue just no sooner after that. He was fortunate, for Cater seemed to understand Ace's ordeal. Not that Ace liked to be pitied or anything, yeah.

"Okay, okay." Another groan from Cater. "I'll see what I can do. I make no promise, though."

He swiftly nodded. "…Thanks again, Cater. I'll see you soon." Ace then rose from his seat, brushing his shiny pants a bit. He looked around the plaza for a bit, making sure there were no eavesdroppers, which luckily, there wasn't any. He was about to proceed to his destination when Cater unseated herself rather quickly, tugging his coat's sleeve to capture his attention.

"Oh, there's something important about Korushi Cave that I forgot to tell you…"

…

The trip to Korushi Cave was hell for generic soldiers, especially if you were going there only with the help of single chocobo through the woods. Fortunately, Ace was no generic soldier. He was well-trained, and things like these were nothing but his breakfast. What made him wonder was the fact that he did not spot any Byakko's soldier anywhere. Was Ace assuming too much?

Either way, he stopped his chocobo when he reached the entrance of the mountain's cave. Landing down on his shoes, Ace took his chocobo's reins and tied its' rope to one of the tree. The tree was big and strong enough to keep it from running away, but it was shadowy enough to not to be noticed by anyone who passed the plains.

"Stay here, Boco." Ace patted the back of his chocobo comfortingly, in which the chocobo replied with a small 'wark!'. Managing a small smile, he then grabbed three layers of card between his fingers from his holster and headed towards the dark entrance of the cave. If what Cater said was true, he better be prepared for it.

And indeed, what Cater said was no lie. The place was damp, dark, and smelly even. The moment Ace stepped his shoes inside, an unsettling feeling rose on his feet. There was not any tinge of light here, even his silvery clothes couldn't show its' radiance here. Ace wasn't scared, but he didn't feel really comfortable in this place, that was for sure.

Ace made his journey to the other entrance of the cave steadily, letting his left arm stabilize his pace by tracing the rocky wall of the grotto. He walked for a good five minutes through the silences when it rang on his ears.

Sound of steps.

Reinstating his battle stance, Ace held his weapons up, aiming at the source of the sound. Sure, he could barely see a thing here, but he was not one to get ambushed. He was always the one to initiate an attack, and he did so. Even though there was a high possibility that his attack wouldn't connect, he unleashed three cards at the corner of the dark hall. And whether the hit connected or not, he grabbed another three pieces of cards between his fingers again.

It seems for once, Ace was underestimating his opponent. There were sounds of clashes of his cards against his foe's weapon, but much to Ace's surprise, the steps were getting closer to him in an intimidating and absurdly fast pace. That caught Ace by surprise, yes, but Ace was not Ace if he was to get caught off guard. Considering his enemy's speed was out of his league, he decided to jump back a bit, throwing another set of cards at his enemy.

Again, his opponent seemed to be able to dodge them with ease, and that was enough for Ace to grit his teeth in a slight anger.

Furthermore, his enemy was still able to add more velocity to its already insane speed. Before Ace even knew it, it was already behind Ace, ready to strike the young blonde from his blind spot.

At that moment that appeared to be a mere second, Ace was surprisingly still able to get a good look of his enemy. What flashed behind him was a human, around the same height as him. Ace reacted just in time by grabbing a single card, and curbed it in front of him to wound the neck of his opponent, a small trail of bloods falling from that small cut. However, Ace was countered with a fist to his face. That, if it didn't stop right before his eyes.

They both stopped at their track and the two fighters gazed at each other's eyes calmly. Ace managed to get a further look at his enemy despite the blackness of the cave, for his eyes were already adapted to the place's darkness. The man before him had a short hair, wore a sleeveless martial arts garb that was not tied appropriately, leaving his chest open to the air around him, and for his lower parts, he wore a Capri pants with a pair of leather boots that only reached up his ankles. And of course, the piercing red eyes that Ace kept gazing at.

It fitted Cater's description so much.

"_Getting past Korushi Cave is close to impossible, hence why nobody uses that path. There's a reason for that, though. There's a good friend of mine who lives there. He's… well, somewhat weird just like you, but a good person nonetheless. He's some kind of a gatekeeper there, so he does not let anyone pass through his so-called-home easily. Just make sure you bring—"_

"Here."

Reverting from his stance, Ace slipped his hand into his holster to grab a piece of apple. His 'enemy' only quirked a single eyebrow at him as Ace passed the red and juicy fruit to him. As the martial artist got a hold of the apple, he simply let his killing intentions go away. Still, his face kept calm and expressionless as he juggled the apple idly.

"Ace... The Caller." He stopped his juggling, taking a bite on the fruit coolly. "Minori send you?"

The card wielder only raised an eyebrow in confusion as the other guy laughed a little when he noticed Ace's face. He took another bite before he replied.

"Minori. That little sly informant." A chuckle. "Or perhaps, you know her as Cater?"

Ace gave a little 'Oh' before he nodded a bit. They both said nothing more until Ace spoke.

"Miyu, right?"

"Call me Eight, if you would." The other man calmly interrupted, once again juggling the apple. "It's a pleasure to be able to witness the strength of The Caller by my own eyes."

The Caller was actually in the same place to state the same thing, for this guy named Eight in front of him was actually able to stand on the same ground as him, but he said nothing. "Please, you're flattering me. I am also glad to be your acquaintances as well, Sir Eight."

Eight nibbled on his apple again before letting his chuckle controlled his mouth. "Who would've thought The Caller would be very formal? Just Eight is fine." A swift moment, and Eight already offered a handshake against Ace, in which the blonde replied positively. Soft, warm smiles were soon traded between the two young men.

"I heard from Cater that you resides here, Eight?" Ace claimed politely, pulling back his arm from the handshake with the same politeness as how he worded things. "Darkness does not terrify you, I presume?"

"Not in the slightest." Eight quickly answered, his arm held into his hip thoughtfully. "This darkness is but an illusion to one's eyes compared to the true, terrorizing darkness out there. You understand what I am addressing, no?"

"…Yes." Eight's tone just now was stern, but so did Ace's when he replied. Certainly, Eight was referring to Cid Aulstyne and his tyranny over the land of Byakko, if not the whole Oriense. Byakko's militaries were still untouchable, even if the other countries were to combine their strengths. "More than you. No offense."

"None taken." The chestnut haired man bit the last remnant of his apple, swallowing it for good. "Please, go right ahead. I can ensure you your way back from Yuhanra Region will still safe, should you decide to return to Suzaku from this same path."

Eight's words were unfaltering, and after how Ace fought him for a moment just now, he believed that Eight would live to his words. "Let us chat a little more after I breathe back in this land, Eight."

They both knew that by 'chat a little more', perhaps there would be some sort of sparring included, and they wouldn't take it in any other way. "I would be more than happy to."

Once again, smiles were formed on their lips before they both bowed at each other. Ace soon turned on his heels as Eight instructed him the way out.

…

With Eight's help, the trip to Byakko's land was faster than ever. Usually, if they were to take a trip to Byakko, they were required to walk through the rocky mountain, and that alone might take more than a day. But via this small, dangerous path, guarded by a strong man, the trip didn't take any longer than three hours. Sure, it was still tiring, but it was way less tiring compared to the former choice.

When Ace reached the forest of Yuhanra, the moon was already high. What accompanied him were only the sound of rustling leaves and shrilly songs of crickets. Still, Ace made his approach as cautious as possible, since he was in the enemy territory right now.

And his cautious nature helped him. He found two soldiers dressed in Byakko's armor were patrolling the forest at this hour. Fortunately for him, those two soldiers didn't seem to notice him. In fact, they were visibly sleepy, as he watched one of them stifling a yawn. Just his luck. Ace grabbed two cards by his hand.

The cards were nothing but playing cards, but whenever they were on Ace's hand, they were as sharp as razors.

Ace quickly threw a single card at one of them, and the said large man was dead. Before the other man could let out his surprise, another card passed his beefy neck and he was minus his head. The last things they gave to Ace were something that he was never fond of, pained screams and fountains of bloods.

Stiil, Ace did not falter at the sight. After he waited a bit from afar and nobody else was coming to the corpses' aid, Ace assumed that those two were the only soldiers stationed here.

At least that was his assumption, which apparently betrayed his sense since he felt a chill just when he was about to step out from his hiding spot. No, this one was definitely worse than before. Whoever watching Ace right now was a great warrior without any question, for the killing intention was too deadly for Ace's safety.

_Where?_

The card user scanned his surrounding agitatedly. There was no single breathing but his here.

_Who?_

Ace took a deep breath before he closed his eyes to concentrate deeper at his surroundings. It was almost like the same feeling as when he met Eight just now, albeit this one was more ferocious. One small mistake, and Ace guarantee that he wouldn't be able to leave this place unharmed. He gulped.

_Think, Ace. Think._

The moment he heard a sound of movement coming from afar, Ace quickly opened his eyes and launched a single card at the said direction.

He hoped that it will reach whoever spied on him, yet it wasn't.

Instead, the one card that he threw was pierced by a sharp arrow. Not only his card, even his stomach was drilled by the arrow. Ace didn't want to admit it, but this was the second time today he was caught off guard; something that defiled his honor as a warrior.

Yet from this wound, he got a good understanding of who the hell attacked him: An elite marksman. Named or nameless was barely important, but this person was definitely amazing, to be able to snipe him from that distance in this darkness.

He dishearteningly hated to do this, but Ace had to retreat to somewhere safer. That marksman got an advantage if he was positioned in that height. Ace was comparable to a mouse against his enemy to a falcon at this condition. The Caller dashed back to hide himself, but two arrows were shot at him. Luckily, those two arrows didn't hit Ace's body since he was able to evade just right on time.

Another attempt to hide away, and other arrows prevented Ace from doing so.

Usually at times like this, Ace would cast a Thunder or a Blizzard to interrupt his enemy's vision, but he was in no condition. The wound by his stomach was enfeebling him. Ace would love to stop a bit and think of the possible ingredients for the arrow on his stomach, but this was no place and no time to do so as well. For now, he'll conclude that either a paralyzing or a poisoning arrow stabbed his poor gut. Ace always had back-up plans if his conditions refused to cooperate, though. Grabbing two round things from his left pocket, Ace threw it to the ground just in front of him.

As soon as the balls touched the ground, it emitted smokes. The smokes were absurdly thick and tall that it blocked the sharpshooter's vision. Furthermore, the smell wasn't too friendly for human's nose as well. Wisely enough, the shooter did not proceed any further, for senses were very crucial for a sharpshooter's life.

A good one minute, and the smokes were gone, along with any trail of The Caller.

"It seems that I underestimated him." The marksman's deep, yet composed voice echoed around the silent forest. "You'll not escape."

…

A cough, and bloods were oozing from Ace's mouth.

He mentally cursed himself for being such a weak person. He wasn't supposed to be wounded this easily, dammit! He was the best of the best. He was the number one assassin as well as the number one rider of Suzaku. After the encounter with the unknown bow-user just now, the only thing he was still proud of was his speed, which he used to retreat.

_Damn it._

He brought himself away with all his energies, and he managed to get a good distance from the forest already. Now, he was somewhere with less trees. Although the scenery was a bit more familiar compared to before, this place was still not Suzaku nonetheless and he needed to keep his guards up.

Or so he wished.

Ace was inching farther away from the woods by any seconds as he managed to get a sight of a small town by his eyes. He was not fond of stopping in a town, yes, but he was required to do so in this condition. Sadly, while he was inwardly happy at this fact, his body didn't recuperate enough to let him stand on his two feet. Just around the small path that leads him to the entrance of the town, Yuuki fell to his knees, one hand massaging the wound on his body weakly.

Another cough and more bloods were streaming from his mouth.

Before long, he fell face first to the hard cobblestone due to the stinging pain on his stomach. More bloody coughs enveloped his mouth as the young man grunted in pain. Pain, pain, and pain… Those were the only thing that Ace felt as his eyes getting heavier.

As he lay on the ground barely conscious, he managed to see someone approached him from the corner of his eyes.

"A-are you alright, sir?"

That someone bent down next to him. It was a girl. A girl with beautiful figure and beautiful voice. Her white colored robe seemed to shine brightly against the dark sky, painting them with its' radiance. Her tone was full of worry, and she was reaching to him with her petite arm.

But that was all Ace could tell, because his vision was soon claimed by darkness.

* * *

**Alright, six thousands words. Longest chapter I've ever wrote. Also, if you didn't notice, I used the first name of their respective seiyuu's name for Class Zero's real name, as much as I hate to give them so. Well, that's mainly because I've planned for both Queen and King not as a queen and a king of any country, and calling them as Queen and King respectively… Well, you got the idea. Hell, they're both too badass to just sit down on a throne.**

**Read and review and I might write faster. ALL THE NAGGING, MAN.**


	3. Verse II : A Drop of Fate

**Okay, I think I forgot to reply to reviewer, and I shouldn't do that any further, should I?**

**Type-0 fan – Well, thank you for your review. Eight's part was something I enjoyed the most when I wrote the previous chapter 8D**

**GroundZeroFirework – Let's say the previous chapters were barely the main dish. I've planned the romance to be… less visible in this arc. I'm not one to rush things, I guess.**

**MuddyWriter – I know right? I was confused myself on where to pull the line on previous chapter. Yet, that was the shortest I could pull, so… yeah. Also, I am in dire need of beta reader, to be quite honest. My grammars were barely perfect. Welp.**

**Guest(s) – Thanks. I don't even know who you guys are, but you guys are cool peeps, that's for sure.**

**Crystallium – WELL YEAH I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU FANGASM MORE WITH NEW CHAPTERS! Haha, it's in my best pleasure to make each of them a badass in their own, respective way. Which is not hard since canonically, they are already too badass. Love you too, btw.**

**Regoli – Hey, thanks for favoriting most of my crappy works. I love your dA's works too, man. Especially the A2 one 8D. I am happy that you love the plot and the CR building. Yeah, exactly my point. Relationship is not something that one should rush; decent, well-built interactions are necessary for that, hence why I am usually against crack pairings. Usually, yeah, there're some I can tolerate. Also, go tl;dr on me, it's fine! I love detailed reviews, especially when it concerns my pros and cons, since that way, I can find a way to improve myself. Bromance all the way, by the way xD**

**About 'Yuuki', well… It's an unisex name, if my research didn't fail me. And I take it from Yuuki Kaji, one of the best Japanese voice actor these days, which is coincidentally Ace's voice actor. Same goes for Eight's and Cater's true name, I used Miyu from Miyu Irino (Eight's voice actor) and Minori from Minori Chihara (Cater's voice actor). Basically, you can guess everyone's true name from their voice actor name in this fanfiction. Wikipedia is your best friend for this, guys.**

**Oh, remember about the three main characters and three main pairings I've said before? Consider that gone. A slight change in script, I suppose. Everyone of Class Zero will be a main character at least once here.**

**Final Fantasy Type-0 and its characters belong to Square Enix.**

* * *

_Verse II : A Drop of Fate  
_

* * *

Eight sat with one knee bent on the black, rocky corner of the cave, a small bonfire kindled hotly in front of him. Dark places did not, or would not bore him. In fact, staying in a damp place like this would be taken into his consideration as a form of training. It was not what average persons do for their training, indeed, but if he took a step farther than them, the fruit of his training would bloom faster, and not to mention, better.

Especially his vision. Eight's eyes already experienced every darkness of this place, and his senses were undoubtedly high. He heard what no normal human could. He saw what no normal human could. Noticing human steps even with his eyes closed was what he did every day.

Of course, there was a certain human's step that he could recognize in a nanosecond. This one. The one that rhymed so fast, getting louder on his ears by any seconds.

"Hey."

Her voice rang in his earshot as he turned his head at her, a smirk captured his usually-expressionless lips. Before him was Cater, standing with her hand giving a thumbs-up at him, and possibly with her trademark grin on her face.

"Look what the cat dragged in." He cooed silently. "Miss Minori, who doesn't even bother to spread her identity for her customer."

"Details, details." Cater sighed before she approached him. As soon as she was next to him, she rotated on her heels so that she was now facing the same direction as him, her back clamped against the stone walls. "Ace had gone through this place, then?"

"Aah." Eight answered idly, silently watching Cater's expression from his position. His smirk died down. He was no man with best judgment, but even he could tell that there was something off of Cater.

Still, he knew her more than anyone else, and that was more than enough for him to hold his tongue from saying anything. They were childhood friends and whenever she felt like this, he would stay silent and be good listener.

The girl was turning her attention at him as her next move. Minori wasn't able to grasp a good view of his façade, but Eight was definitely analyzing her. She was just like an open book for him, where she could hardly read his emotion.

Cheater.

A tired sigh fled her lips as she quietly slumped down to her sitting position, her level now approximately equaled him. She was almost muttered a word, but it choked inside her throat. What made her harder to say anything further was his eyes that keep guarding her fragile state, as if he was advising her to vent her mind in any way that was comfortable for her.

"Sorry." Another sigh. "I am just tired, I guess."

"I see."

She made no hard attempt to immediately rest her head on his muscular shoulder. To that, Eight did not budge a muscle and appended a light pat on her auburn hair.

…

A low groan, as his vision started to get saner.

…_Where?_

Another groan, and Ace's vision was totally for himself once again. As soon as the blurriness on his sight vanished, his eyes captured the wooden ceiling, two small cobwebs on the corner of it.

"—re it's well-boiled before you drink it."

A voice.

The same voice that called to him back then.

Ace lifted his neck a bit to see the owner of the said voice. And he did, albeit it was only the part of her face since she was facing another direction. She was sitting on a wooden chair, and almost every parts of her body were covered by a white hooded surcoat that was long enough to reach the spot just right above her knee, and her entire calves were covered by a pair of long, black knee socks. The girl was talking to an older woman on her side kindly, one or two girlish giggles painted their conversation.

"Well then, I'll see you later, darling." The elder rose from her seat after a while, a reddish-brown bag on her hand. "Thank you. You are most kind."

"Mmm. Think nothing of it." The young woman shook her head softly. "It is in my best interest to help you, ma'am. Be careful on your way home."

As the girl got up from her position and led the old folk outside of the place, Ace painfully rose from his laying position into that of a sitting one. When the blanket that covered his body was marginalized, that was when he noticed that he was left with less clothing; the only piece of clothing that was still attached to him was his silvery pants. That and bandages around his stomach. Narrowing his eyes in a small doubt at his body's current condition, Ace skeptically touched his wound with his hand when she entered the zone again.

"You shouldn't touch that."

Again, that voice captured his attention as he turned his face at her. Right now, he was able to get a clear look of her face, as she was not wearing the hood anymore. Her face was beautiful, and her eyes reflected the entire purity that she possessed. Her chocolate hair was regal and well-maintained, giving her the vibe of an angel.

For a second there, Ace swore that he was amazed by her beauty.

The girl didn't seem to notice that though, as she was soon settling to his height, her eyes concentrated at the bandage on Ace's gut. Ace blinked his eyes once as she raised a finger to rub his wound softly, her seriousness melted into a relief.

"Don't worry. It'll heal in no time." She sighed once. "Hopefully it'll fully healed by tomorrow."

There were a lot of questions of Ace's mind right now, but he asked the most important one.

"Where am I?" He looked around his right side for a bit before turning to his left. "How long was I unconscious?"

The girl smiled as she rose from her position. She walked to the cabinet on the far end of the room to sort the bottles there. "Korushi. I found you by the town's entrance last night."

Ace gasped a little as she said the fact. If she said last night, then that means he was out for at least six hours or so, and that was not something he should do. Agitatedly, the boy looked around to find a clock, and when he did, he noticed that it was almost noon now.

This wasn't in his plans. He needed to go now.

Ace almost darted from his bed when an ache confronted his stomach, making him groan in pain again. To that, the girl was taken by surprise and she gasped. Quickly, she rushed to Ace's side, her face was now filled with worry again.

"Don't!" She grabbed his shoulders with her hands, politely holding him from moving any further. "The wound will open again!"

As if on rhyme with the girl's order, Ace groaned and his body fell back on the overstuffed surface of the bed. When his average-sized back met the comfortable end of the bed, the girl slowly take her hand away from his physique.

"Please take it slowly, Ace-san." She soon said that, addressing Ace as if she already knew him. Well, he was some sort of living legend around Oriense, so that was not really surprising. "Your wound was very deep. You don't want to let that bleed again, do you?"

While Ace gave a 'tch' at her advice, he knew more than better than to disobey her suggestion. He was the one who was suffering from the injury, and he was sure the pain on his gut was bloody painful. The frustration on Ace's face subsided no sooner after the realization, and he decided to spurt another question at his caretaker.

"Who are you?"

Ace watched her blinking her eyes twice, while his eyes were narrowing a little. He didn't want to think badly of someone, but from her expression just now, it was as if she… doubted that he could act civil.

…Well, one of negative points of being an infamous assassin, he guessed.

Ace's previous opinion was overwritten when she smiled again, though. Just like before, her smile was lovely, even for Ace's standard (he was as good as asexual, as Cater once teased him). Along with her tiny, smiling lips, her angelic voice soon reached Ace's ears again.

"Deuce. A physician in training."

…

Contrary to what he had originally thought three hours ago, Deuce's treatment was better than most of Suzaku's doctor, if not all. She had changed his bandages, made him his breakfast, and treated other patients while still watching his health's growth. In addition, she kept her smile on all the time, which reassures all her patients, including him. It was as if this small house was her patient's and she was a servant that would say yes to every order she was assigned.

And she said that she was still a trainee? Ace could hardly buy that.

There was something else about her that piqued his interest, however. After two hours of his medication and he was about to rest, Deuce left him to drift into his slumber, which he didn't do. For that one hour, a wondrous melody replenished the air around him. A music that was too beautiful that it was inhuman. He had a slight hunch that this melody sourced from his healer, to be honest.

Unfortunately, Ace was a man of wonder. He was generally inquisitive of anything that interests him, and he took his risk to witness them with his own senses. Carefully rising from the bed, Ace then slowly cruised over to the door that leads him outside.

The first thing that welcomed his eyes was the bright ray of the sun that reflected from the warm sun through his silver overcoat, which was hung by the clothesline neatly. Ace made a quick and clear understanding that his coat was now cleaner than ever there, and Deuce probably washed it either yesterday or this morning.

His ears, though, captured something different: That astonishing melody again. Following his ears' will, his eyes soon darted over to the side to see Deuce sitting on the tip of the wooden railing, a flute enveloped her lips tightly.

Merely by listening to every note of her melody, his insides were soothed. It was calming, and he never once heard such a beautifully-played melody. It was… a major change compared to the heartbreaking shrieks he always heard whenever he had to do his jobs. Subconsciously, he was caught in an unexplainable reverie that the girl created through her very flute. Obviously, Ace did nothing to stop her and let his ears enjoyed the pleasantness he could take from this.

Still, there would always be an end to every melody, and Deuce still did it beautifully. She gracefully pulled the flute away from her mouth and jumped from her seat, her pure white shoes landed on the green grasses soundlessly.

A slow clasp from her side caught her by surprise, and she quickly wheeled around to see whose clasp was that. Of course, it was Ace's.

"Beautiful." The Caller complimented, an obvious mixture of amusement and amazement on his eyes. "Simply beautiful, Miss Deuce."

Her cheeks were painted by the color of roses as his compliments slowly dawned on her. She looked down shyly.

"T-thank you."

Another second and she gasped. Shaking her head in realization once, she then quickly rushed to his side, her head flung close to his. Her cheeks were rosy no more before Deuce puffed her cheeks and she held out a finger at him. Her face was incredibly cute this way, but due to the proximity between hers and his face, it was rather… uncomfortable for Ace in the end.

"T-that's not the point here!" Deuce jabbed her index finger to his chest. "You shouldn't be walking right now, Ace-san!"

At that, Ace sighed, scoffed even. "I am perfectly fine." Granted, this was only half lie, but Ace had recovered enough to do his daily chores that didn't involve fighting. Spying and collecting information, for instance. Sure, he was not as proficient as Cater or other named informant out there, but he could become as shady as possible should it was necessary for him.

On top of that, Ace had natural talent of telling one's personalities by his first glance along with the judgment that follow. It helped him a lot, of course. Like with Deuce here, Ace could tell already what she was prone against...

"…Especially when you showered me with such intriguing melodies, my lady."

…Compliments.

And his judgment succeeded him. No sooner, her cheeks were colored by shades of reds as she bashfully pulled her face away and waved her hands in front of her chest while saying something like 'P-Please, you're flattering me,' and 'I-I am not that good.' A grin soon claimed its throne on Ace's lips along with small laughs that beat along with it.

"Besides, I am in need of fresh air." Ace said plainly. "I am not wasting myself inside a room when I can enjoy the beautiful air of this town."

His gaze made its' way to the small trail that lead to the main part of the town. He couldn't say this for sure, but Deuce's house… or clinic… or whatever she would like to call this place, was definitely on the outer part of the town. As his eyes sniped further to the said path, there were voices of children's laughs, along with villagers' gossiping. It seemed at this hour, the town was on its' peak of activeness.

Unbeknownst to him, Deuce made a small movement. She dived lower until her head was around the same level as Ace's stomach. The brunette eyed the bandage and gave a small 'hmm' before she pulled her head again. Before long, she sighed dejectedly.

"Very well." Deuce's tone right now was surprisingly assertive, compared to how she acted before. She poked Ace's chest with her finger once again. "However, I will not let you go by yourself. I am coming with you."

Ace was about to object her when her unfinished sentence was finished.

"And that's final. Or else I am not granting you permission."

…Well, there goes his objection. This time, it was Ace's turns to sigh dejectedly. Better than nothing, at the very least.

Before he even knew it, she was already by the drying pole, grabbing Ace's coat to her side, an audible hum passed her lips. Turning on her heels, she politely gave the overcoat to its rightful owner as the said owner was a bit dumbfounded at her mood swings.

"You can't possibly walk around the town half-naked, Ace-san." There was a slight blush on her face as she said that. "Still, I will not suggest you to button your coat up. It will heal faster if you leave it like this."

That was somewhat understandable for Ace. In fact, that was what he would do even if Deuce did not tell him to. That, and his personal experience of getting injured a lot from his missions. Grabbing his favorite coat, he didn't even bother putting his arms inside. Instead, Ace threw his coat over his shoulders and letting it drape over them as if it was some kind of cape. Deuce didn't argue against his action, she only smiled at that. After all, it was his choice on how he should wear his clothes, and there was no place for Deuce, an outsider, to comment on that.

"Oh, wait a moment." When her pure face showed her remembrance of something, she quickly ran inside her hut, once again leaving Ace confused at her quick nature.

Inside her clinic, Deuce stopped momentarily to grab the basket from the desk. The content of the basket were nothing too extravagant, only piles of herbs that she always gave to people freely. Well, some paid her for that, but generally she did not accept it for she was in no dire need of money. She just wanted everyone to be healthy and smiling, for that was a payment worth more than thousand Gils.

She was about to head back outside when another bag made her contemplate her movement. A small waist-bag, which was definitely not hers.

It was Ace's.

In the eyes of normal persons, playing cards were the only load inside of it. But Deuce, and many other people knew, The Caller's weapon of choice were cards. Those pieces of papers turned very deadly when the said person got a hold of them. That very person, coincidentally, was no further than ten meters from her.

She hesitated for a moment. Should she give it back to him? Honestly, she originally thought The Caller was crueler than this, being one of the most famous assassins of Oriense, yet in fact, he was rather… calm, especially judging from the reflection of his eyes. There were killing intentions somewhere on his eyes, yes, but they were minors compared to the mass reflection of faithfulness Ace gave through his azure eyes. It was as if his negative profession covered the entire positive traits he hid inside of him.

Deuce sighed in a relief once. Maybe she was a bit too quick to trust him, but she knew that Ace might not be as bad as how he was depicted by the rumors. She was not going to regret this, that was for sure. She scooped the bag with her free, left arm before she head outside once again.

"Sorry to make you wait, Ace-san." She smiled, before giving Ace's holster at him. "Here you go."

As soon as he grabbed the bag, he stared at her in disbelief yet again. Ace looked at the bag that held his weapon first, before his gaze darted over to her.

"Are you sure about this?"

His words were as sharp as a threat, and it was no empty threat. Following his words, his narrowed eyes soon found its way to gaze deeper into her. She was incredibly naïve and quick to trust, even people like him that she logically should have no business with. Yet there were no sign of remorse in her face as she did everything anywhere. While he should not be one to judge people, that side of her ticked him a bit.

"Of course I am." Another smile, and she turned around, her basket was held by both of her hands behind her back. Her next words hit Ace on the spot, surprisingly.

"If you wanted to kill me, Ace-san… You would have already killed me the moment you can walk outside, wouldn't you?"

The sincerity in her words just made Ace's doubt about her naivety gone. She was naïve to a fault, yes, but one thing for sure that she was incredibly kind and nice, if not altruistic. Ace's stares at her once again turned more expressionless than ever, before her words cut that out.

"Come on." Deuce tilted her head a bit cutely, her smile getting wider. "Or you want to just sleep inside instead?"

A poignant pause, before Ace sighed exasperatedly. Still, his smile was intact by his lips.

"Well, lead the way."

…

Just against the crowded desk in her room, Rem tiredly finished another piece of paperwork. To her left were piles of paperwork that she had done, and to her right were the one that had yet to do. In comparisons, they were about the same height now. She had done a lot of signing, but there were still a lot to sign as well. Leaning back on the soft surface of the chair, Rem then stretched her arms upward to relax a bit, before she fold her arms back on the table and her forehead fell against them tiredly.

It nearly killed Machina to see her like this from the side, in so much pain with no way for him to help it. There were some papers that required her signature, indeed, but she was overworking without any doubt. She even took papers that were not her grandfather's, or hers, and she still worked on it. Machina could understand this was Rem's attempt to distract her mind so that she was not feeling downcast from His Majesty's weakening state, but still…

"Bodyguard." Rem raised her head again, before she moved away from the seat, standing upright. "I will take my bath now."

"Yes, my Princess." He bowed obediently.

A small and brisk walk soon brought both of them to their destination. Machina quickly assumed his position just right outside of the bathroom's door. Removing her dress, Rem slid into the tub that was already prepared for her. A sigh of relaxation escaped her lips as the warm water rushed over her delicate figure. Bathing time like this was one of her daily pleasure in her life. She laid back, waiting for the handmaidens to come and wash her hair.

Usually they would come from the side door, yet nobody came. Instead, there was a sound of something falling to the floor, along with the sound of splashing liquids that followed it. Rem turned her head to see what it was, and she immediately regretted it.

It was a human arm, falling on the pool of bloods that sprayed over on the floor of the entrance of the side room. She was unable to hide her disgusts as the princess clamped her mouth with her hands, gasps were leaking out if she did not do that. And just right after that, an unknown person stepped in from the side room, a bayonet rested on the said person's right shoulder.

Covered in Byakko's armor and helmet, the mysterious person let out a disgustingly crazy smirk as she watched Rem's horrid expression.

* * *

**Okay, this chapter is not as long as previous chapter, and it connects to the main event only in the slightest except the last part. More of an Ace's chapter than to a Machina's chapter, yeah. Still, I hope you enjoy this slow-paced story, since I am fond of them myself. More reviews are always welcomed.**

**Also, the first part about Eight is the one that I featured as a form of congratulations for him. Don't get it? Because as of today in my timezone, it's already the 30th of August, which is Eight's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EIGHT.**


	4. Verse III : Encounter of the Animus

**Okay, sorry for the slow update. I've been roleplaying for a while and… Well, addicted to that so sudden writer's block. Hurrdurr. In case anyone want to contact me for plot ideas, suggestion, or anything else, I've put my contact in my profile.**

**OHMYGOD SEKI JUST REVIEWED MY STORYYYYYYY. Really, what did I do to deserve your presence here!? SEKI MY DEUUUUUUUUUCEEEEEEEE YES YES! EVERYTHING FOR YOU, BBY. By the way, this chapter had 8k words, so prepare your eyes.**

**Also, thanks to whoever who lurked this fic. This story already hit more than seven hundreds hits. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, honestly, especially those from United States, since from September, this one got 140 hits merely from US. REALLY, TELL ME WHO YOU ARE AND I MIGHT WRITE A STORY FOR YOU. GRACIAAAAAS.**

**Insert disclaimer here.**

* * *

_Verse III : Encounter of the Animus_

* * *

Rem never gasped that big before.

When a soldier dressed in Byakko armor entered, she felt her fear rise to a certain degree already, but when two other soldiers entered the stage? The color of her face was drained. The two on the side weren't holding a bayonet unlike the one in the middle, only a low to medium quality swords respectively.

Still, this was not a good situation for her.

"Well, well." The one in the middle, which Rem presumed was their leader, spoke. The tone was intimidating, but Rem was certain that the voice belonged to a female. "Pretty defenseless, aren't you?"

Despite the threat, Rem didn't budge, even when she was in this situation; naked, with three persons possibly after her misery (and two of them are men), and she was weaponless. That was exactly because she had one thing that she was always proud of: magicks. Her grandfather, along with royal wizards, had taught her many things regarding magicks, and she had compiled them into one, perfect performance of magick long ago. Honestly, it was never said officially, but almost everyone in the Capital of Rubrum knew that Rem was probably the number one magick user of the country. The beautiful princess swallowed the lump on her throat before she glared knives at them.

"State your business, Byakko soldiers."

It was her enemies' time to be surprised at her behavior. They had expected numbers would at least make an impact on her, yet it seemed that they were mistaken. Her courage was way higher than their original expectation.

Still, the leader kept her wicked smile intact. "Are you acting fearless, or are you just that stupid, little princess? 'Cause we are here to end your life."

She raised her hand, and the two soldiers charged at the tub, where Rem was still resting inside. They shouted as they held their swords up, perfectly confident that they would be able to take her down easily.

And they were wrong. Rem's right arm was a blind spot for them, and she concentrated her magick there. As her hand was underwater, she could only cast Blizzard or Water, and she performed the former. As soon as the soldiers were close enough to her position, Rem unleashed the mystical power of the ice to freeze them to death.

Yet, it only hit one soldier.

While his comrade was now a statue of ice, the other man paid no attention to his friend's wellbeing. Instead, he leapt from his position to pin Rem down underwater, and unfortunate for Rem, he was successful. Rem's eyes were left open in shock as she stared what beneath the tiger helmet of her aggressor; wild eyes that shone with desperate madness to rip her alive. This current predicament was more than enough to let Rem's blood run cold.

"Die!"

She opened her mouth to scream, although it was incomplete due to the fact that the man managed to shove her head to the water before she finished her sentence.

"MACHI-"

Just outside the bathing room, Machina rotated his head in curiosity. Did Princess Rem just call him? Inquisitively, he called back at her.

"Princess? You called for me?"

No answer.

He blinked once, before he called her again. This time, he spiced it up by adding a knock to the wooden door.

"Princess Rem?"

Still no answer.

Machina's heart skipped a beat at this. Anxiously, he tried to open the door, but it was locked. He reached back and heaved his shoulder into the door, but the high-quality oak did not give an inch.

"Princess!? PRINCESS!?"

He didn't want to do this, but he was desperate. Quickly, Machina pulled his two swords to slash the door open, and the door splintered into three. Whether this was only a misunderstanding on his part, Machina would think of that later. Right now, Rem's situation was unknown to him and that was more than enough for him to do that.

And then he saw her, along with two persons and one frozen human statue.

One second Machina widened his eyes on the scenery before him, and another one second he narrowed them in anger. As fast as lighting, the young Kunagiri launched one sword at the man like a javelin, and it pierced him right through his chest.

The man howled a scream that was more animal than human, yet Machina didn't stop at just that. Following that, he introduced his foot to the man's face, sending the man away with his enormous kick.

The soldier's back met the stone wall of the room, and he soon let out his last breath. Machina glared at the dead body for a moment, before darting his sight to the only other person that still stands beside him: Their leader. As Rem managed to get her head out of the watery tube, she coughed up water from her mouth.

Immediately, Machina assigned his position between Rem and this unknown assassin. However, he was not able to concentrate fully on his enemy, as Rem's condition caught his attention the most.

Luckily, the woman with Byakko suit did not resort to a quick hit, she stayed still on her spot and she clasped her hands together repeatedly.

"Impressive, royal bodyguard." She said amusedly, before the corner of her lips faded into seriousness. "But, I think I need to kill you now that you killed my recruits."

She stopped the praising and raised her bayonet at Machina's direction, and the said knight's eyes were widening. Shit, this was a miscalculation on his part. Dodging a bullet or two was no hard work for him, but in his position, if he evaded the bullet, it would undoubtedly hit Rem.

"You are the worst, by the way."

She pulled the trigger, and the bayonet released a bullet at his direction. In his reflex, Machina held his sword in front of him in attempt to block the incoming attack. Still, there was a part of him that doubted his enemy used a normal bullet against him. The smirk that the woman before him gave him was not making it any better.

Yet, they were both surprised by the outcome. The bullet never hit Machina.

The two combatants raised their eyes in surprise at what spanned before them. Between them, the bullet stopped on the air, crashing a thick, transparent wall. The wall was not there before, it was…

"…White Magick!?"

Destructive magicks, or often dubbed as 'Black Magicks', was not something one could see everyday; deep, intensive trainings for that were required. However, possess Gils more than ordinary persons, and you got your chance to learn them from those who already could, as black magicks users were easily found around the noble quarters of the Capital. In comparison to that, of course, there were the curative spells, or just 'White Magicks'. Granted, white magicks were as easy to learn as the destructive one, yet only a handful of person had the chance to learn them. Due to the fact that white magicks could turn the tides of war easily, high chances that tomes about them were locked in the deepest part of the royal's library.

Easily put, mastering them were prerequisites to be a legal inheritor of the Kingdom of Suzaku.

Both of them forgot that the third person, Princess Rem was still alive and casted the said mystical wall from the side.

Without further ado, Machina took his chance. Within a second, Machina dashed as fast as he could, the sharp end of his sword was directed against the enemy's body. The woman was caught off guard and she couldn't react much as the black, sharpened steel pierced her body.

"AAAGGHH—"

Her pained moan didn't falter Machina. If any, he only dug his sword deeper into her physique. Following that was a shoulder charge from him again, and the woman in Byakko's armor was sent farther to the edge of the room. When her back met the hard surface of the castle's wall and she slumped down weakly, Machina rushed back to the young princess' side worriedly, who was already off the tub.

He also could not help but note that she was nude, and making no conscious effort to cover herself. Machina's face turned beet red for a second before he shook that inappropriate thinking away.

Without a second thought, he tore the red cloak from his shoulders, and rushed to wrap it around her frame. To his surprise, she responded by wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his shirt. He stood there for second unsure of what to do, but then his arms, seemingly acting of their own accord, wound themselves around her shoulders, and his head laid itself down on top of hers. And for a few moments they stood and swayed together gently, to the echoes of dripping water of Rem's delicate body.

It was the sound of someone's movement that actually brought them out of their own world. The assassins' leader rose from her position weakly, and it was obvious for anyone that she could barely hold her body straight. She coughed, and fresh bloods were out of her uncovered mouth.

Once again, Machina resumed his position between Rem and that woman. He was weaponless right now, but he was still pretty sure that he could take on her in her current condition.

"Im… possible… This can't be…" The woman stated in the middle of her coughs, and she was glaring at the princess and her bodyguard. "…happening…"

As her dying eyes fixated their glares at Machina, she was soon widening them again when something flashed on her mind. Before long, she laughed wickedly again despite her current situation.

"Haha-HAHAHAHAHA!"

That earned no response from Machina as well, only his paranoia was rising up to eleven. With one hand on her wound, she raised the other free arm to point at the cobalt blue haired knight.

"I see now… This is actually pos…sible." Her grin got more and more condescending. "That hair color, those battle-crazed eyes…"

Machina's eyes widened in horror.

"…The true successor…"

The young bodyguard had the sudden urge to just tackle her with all his strength, and he almost did that, if not for the fact that the woman jumped back herself and destroyed the thick glass window just behind her. And just right beyond the window were cliffs. Still, she was able to mutter other sentences just before she flung herself at the ravines.

"I'll remember you… I'LL REMEMBER YOU! And I'll avenge this! For I am Qun'mi Trute, the proud warrior of Byakko!"

And as Qun'mi's words echoed on their ears, both Machina and Rem couldn't move. They were simply too shocked at her suicidal leap to say any sensible responses to the assassin's leader's statement.

…

"Big sis Deuce! Big sis Deuce!"

"Good afternoon, Keith! You look very healthy today, too – Oh, please wait a minute, Ace-san."

Ace uninterestedly nodded as Deuce parted her way to the kid's side. Again? That was the fifth time already. Every time there were kids saying hi to her, she would stop and take a small detour to their side. Then, she would have a small chat with them, sometimes giving them a herb or two before returning to his side.

Yet from that, Ace recognized one certain thing about her: She was popular in this town, despite the fact that her house was located on the outer part of the town.

And on the contrary, he – The Caller – wasn't very popular here, luckily. Villagers would not cower in fear when he passed through them, they merely ignored him away. Well, maybe because this Deuce girl was with him, and that fact was more than enough to soothe the villagers' worry. That, or they _actually_ didn't recognize him. If so, that certainly made things easier, though.

"You're spacing out again."

Ace turned his attention expressionlessly at the smaller girl, who was smiling back at him as she walked to his side. A small 'humph', and he retorted back at her. "I am not."

She was unfazed by his remark as she only smiled brighter. "Again, thank you for waiting. Shall we continue?"

"Aah."

And they continued their walk, with Deuce one or two step ahead of him. Certainly, Ace acknowledged his curiosity about this place, but for now he was way more curious about how should he finish his job. He already wasted his precious time too much, about half a day or so. That means… If he did not get anything by another day, he was as good as failing Machina's trust.

And The Caller did not fail.

In the meantime, Ace stared at Deuce intently from behind. Cater's words kept ringing in his head, though he expressed no words. A physician… in Korushi… Was Deuce the one that Cater mentioned?

Their pace was not slow, yet not too correct to be called as fast as well. It was obvious from the way Deuce walked around, she was definitely enjoying every second of this; being a tour guide. "The building over there is the bakery. Sometimes they gave free products when they got extra flours. And then the one over there is—"

"Deuce."

As a voice interrupted Deuce's description, the duo stopped their legs on the spot. When the brunette turned her face at the owner of the said voice, her face beamed and she rushed over to the person's side.

"King-san!"

Before Deuce was a tall, muscular man dressed in white shirt, which was doubled with blue vest just on top of that piece of clothing, and a dark, viscose fabric pants grabbed his legs. The one that stood as the gaudiest, though, wasn't his clothing of choice, it was the silver and gold guns by his leather belt.

And Ace quickly recognized him from that. He had heard the talks about an untouchable gunner that managed to defeat thirty bandits by himself around Makutai, and people had compared that gunner to him. Though Ace never had any intention to, he also had heard that after that rumor rose, the said gunman's location was untraceable. If Ace recalled the description of that talk correctly, the characteristics of that person indeed fitted the man before him so much. It was him, King of the Quicksilver.

The assassin with cards plainly eyed the tall man from his current position as Deuce hugged the bigger man. Though the comparison of their heights was uncanny, King smiled warmly as he patted the brunette's hair before his attention was directed at Ace.

And that was when their eyes met, though Deuce soon removed herself from King's hug and she pointed at Ace to cut their analysis on each other.

"Oh, King-san, this is Ace-san." She quickly introduced King at Ace, before doing the vice versa. "Ace-san, this is King-san."

The two stared at the each other again. It wasn't scary enough to be called as glares, but the weight of their stares was roughly equal to that. Still, they both recognized the lights in each other's eyes; both wanted to let this encounter drift with as little violence as possible. It was then when they both gave a small nod at each other, both as the answer to each other's unsaid decision and as the first step of their introduction.

"Ace."

"Tomokazu, or just King. The pleasure's all mine."

Normally, one would question why in the world one used the nickname 'King', but Ace knew where that nickname originated from and he did not do the unnecessary. On King's part, he acknowledged the same thing that was Ace's personality: He was not a chatterbox, or at least not to someone that might pose a threat at him.

"Ace-san, King-san is the sheriff of this town, and he's really dependable!" Deuce's voice soon interrupted the two warrior's thought. She cheerfully held her finger up as her explanation continued. "By that, I mean _really_ dependable!"

That piqued Ace's interest further. King of the Quicksilver? A sheriff?

"Stop exaggerating things, Deuce." The gunman sighed, his hand grabbed his hip. "I only do what I must."

"But it's true!"

Another sigh as King succumbed to Deuce's enthusiasm. He smiled and patted her head again as the girl giggled happily, a small blush visible on her cheeks. Ace only stayed unmoving on his previous position, his emotion was as stern as a wall.

When Deuce noticed Ace's expression, she clamped two fingers on her mouth, a small gasp coming out from there. "Oh, I am so sorry."

"Sorry, King-san. I would love to talk more with you, but Ace-san wanted to walk around Korushi and I have to accompany him." The healer bowed a bit at King and the tall man nodded in confirmation, before she rotated on her heels to run through the path leading to another part of the town. Before long, she was already ahead from the two men.

"Ace-san, over here!" Deuce eagerly turned her upper body around and waved at them for a moment before striding further.

The golden-haired card user stared at King for a moment before he turned on his heel to follow the girl's lead. However, just when he was about to walk away, a deep voice reached his ears and made him pause his pace.

"The Caller." It was King who called him, who folded his arms enigmatically just behind him. "I don't even have the slightest idea of why you could be injured, or why you could be in Korushi…" His tone got twice darker at his next words. "But if you have a plan to disturb the peace of this town even for a second, your head will be at the end of my bullets."

If King was talking to someone else, they would already pissed themselves from the intimidating tone, yet he was talking to Ace, and Ace merely loomed over his own shoulder to reply back at King, not even a single trace of intimidated was on his face.

"Worry not, King of the Quicksilver." He stated with a matter-of-fact tone. "I may be an assassin, but taking unnecessary actions, and not to mention, lives, was never in my wide array of intentions."

With that, the two infamous rangers parted their ways in silence.

…

Another thirty minutes of walking along the town, and Ace grasped the general blueprint of the town. Korushi's townsfolk were different than Rubrum's, most of them tend to muttered nothing about the ongoing conflict between the two countries. In short, this town was peaceful yet it had an uncanny location; just right beyond the border of the Beast Country and the Fiery Country. Very unfortunate of them.

"Well, this is our last stop." Deuce stated as she pointed to one particular building, the bag in her arms contained no more than ten herbs. "This is possibly the most famous feature of this town, the Eleven Summit tavern and inn. I've never really drink myself, though."

That was when Ace got a sudden flashback for a moment. Indeed, he had heard the words about this place from Rubrum ages ago. Still, the idea of visiting this place never occurred in his mind as he was not the drunkard type.

"No drinking for you yet, Ace-san. You're still recuperating."

"I'll just let you know that I was never too fond of plastering myself with booze as well."

"Well, that's great." She flashed him her usual smile. "I am acquainted well with the owners. They're very generous despite how this place was often frequented with… extravagant peoples."

Well… That was no wonder. They were talking about bar, after all.

"I know you're not going to drink, but you want to go in, Ace-san? I can introduce you to them."

Ace did his best to cover the mild frustration underlying behind his façade, and luckily, he managed to do so. This girl… Who the hell did she think he is? Was he the type of a person that strikes her as a chatterbox? She was too damn trusting, and she might regret that later on.

"Do I look like someone that enjoys a friendly, unnecessary visit?" The blonde remarked back at her. Actually, scratch that, he was not doing a best job at hiding his frustration. The girl blinked her eyes at him twice before she let out a small laugh.

"Actually, you don't." Her laugh was not that of a condescending one, it was more of a friendly one. "But I know you'll act civil when you do, am I right?"

If he was in better mood, he would be surprised on how fast Deuce could read him up. Still, in his current mood, it was only increasing his frustration by a degree. He crossed his arms and groaned, exhaling heavy breaths before he reverted to his calm demeanor. Sure, he got more objections in his tongue, but he swallowed it back since he didn't really want to waste more energy. The sooner he finished this, the better. "…Very well. I think I can spare a time or two for that."

Deuce only tilted her head a bit and smiled as she stepped in through the pair of wooden batwing doors, Ace followed her straightly emotionless.

As soon as the two entered the building, the sound of people's loud chatter did not go unheard. Almost every seat was occupied already even at this hour, where the sun was still rather bright. Furthermore, there were already those who baffled themselves under the alcoholic pressure of the ales. The young pair was a bit disgusted by that, but they kept it for themselves.

"That b' you, lil' Deuce?"

When the bearded middle-aged man behind the barstool spoke, it was when both Ace and Deuce turned their attention to the said man. To that, Deuce quickly made a particular beeline against the crowds to the bar counter.

"Good afternoon, Uncle Kenji." She smiled as she greeted the older man. "I am very sorry that I couldn't visit this place often."

"'ey, no 'ffense taken." Despite his burly and big appearance, Kenji's smile was generous. "Yer a busy lady, we all kn'w."

"Oh no, not that busy, actually. It's just that me and beers don't really come in set."

Again, Ace only watched from the side as Deuce and this man called Kenji laughed together. No matter what the previous condition was, Deuce always seemed to be able to confound herself with everyone else. Maybe Ace did underestimate her friendliness a bit back there. When their friendly laughters died down, the big man pointed a finger at Ace.

"So, who's this 'andsome youn' lad?" He stopped for a moment before a realization dawned in him, a big grin soon enveloped his mouth. "Oh, I kn'w. Must be yer sweetheart, eh?"

Ace stayed still while a faint blush appeared on Deuce's cheeks. She chuckled again as she put another attempt to straight things out.

"Oh no, we're not like that. He's my patient." She said, her tone was rather nervous. To evade any more misunderstanding, she decided to change the topic. "Oh, Uncle Kenji, this is Ace-san. Ace-san, this is Uncle Kenji."

And that was when Kenji's eyes widened as another realization entered his brain. However, he didn't keep that long enough since he soon covered it with a friendly grin.

"Name's Kenji. N'ce ta meetcha, kiddo."

Though from that single second, Ace noticed that this guy had an idea about who he was. He replied to that with a small nod.

"Ace. The feeling is mutual."

The big bartender moved away to grab two beer mugs from the side. He was about to fill them with ales when Deuce stopped him, and Deuce earned Kenji's quirked eyebrows.

"Sorry, uncle, but we're just here to say hi. Both he and I aren't going to drink. " She politely bowed her head a bit in forgiveness. "Oh, is Jack-san home?"

Despite how Deuce just turned his service down, when his son's name was mentioned, Kenji's expression turned ten times prouder. A big grin as he turned his head to his side, eyeing the stairs that was just behind him. "Oi, sonny! Lil' Deuce and her suitor are 'ere ta see ya!"

No sooner, a young man's voice erupted just beyond the stairs, and following that were steps of a hasty human.

"You're kidding me, pops!? Deuce got herself a WHAT!?"

"Uncle Kenji! Stop spreading that lie!"

Deuce retorted bashfully and she shouted in disagreement as the older man only grinned in satisfaction. When the previous steps stopped, a man with yellow, coiffed hair appeared just on the stairs.

And then… That man suddenly jumped from the stairway. He tackled Deuce to capture her in his hug. The man was way taller than her, but his expression looked way more childish than her.

"My little Deuce is all grown up! Big brother Jack is so happyyyyyy~" Kenji's son said as he rubbed his chin on Deuce's silky hair. Needless to say, the smaller girl flabbergasted right on the spot.

"Jack-san! Stop treating me like a child!" She struggled to release herself from the playful hug of the man, but sadly, the bigger man overpowered her.

"But you're still small, and adorable, and cuteeeee~" If any, the man called Jack only rubbed his chin more furiously.

"I am nineteen already, Jack-san!"

"But you're still cute~"

"JACK-SAN!"

On the side, Ace simply made a face. What in the Etro's name this conversation had become?

Yuuki's grimace didn't go unnoticed by Jack, as he quickly rushed to Ace's side and grabbed his hand as soon as he put his attention on the young man, a satisfied grin colored his lips.

"This must be the guy, right!? Right!?" He shook his own hand with Ace's, as the said boy was stunned by Jack's sudden action. "Heya, I am Kenichi, or Jack, whichever sounds better for you! Deuce might be a little too bold at times, but overall, she's a good girl! Do make her happy, Mr. Boyfriend!"

Ace blinked blankly as Jack shook his hand happily. There were so many misunderstandings here that he couldn't say anything good as a plausible response. Jack was about to continue his story, though a hand pulled the collar of his tunic from behind. It was Deuce's, and the said girl was pouting, if not a little agitated.

"Stop right there, Jack-san…" She gave a small 'hmph' as she locked her eyes against Jack's. "He is not my suitor. He is my patient. Nothing more, nothing less."

It was Jack's turn to blink his eyes at Deuce, before he turned to Ace, who expressionlessly mouthed an 'exactly' at him, and then turned to his father, who was already laughing his ass off. Before long, Jack let out a groan.

"Oh dammit, pops! You got me there!"

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

As the middle-aged father laughed heartily, Deuce, who surpassed her embarrassment, joined him with a giggle on her own. Ace only let out a sigh, yet a small amusement was written on his face.

…

Ten minutes after those hilarities ensued, Kenji passed the position as the tavernmaster to his son to rest, and both Jack and Ace acknowledged each other's name already. Unlike his father Kenji, Kenichi didn't even flinch when he heard Ace's name.

Either Jack was ignorant about that fact, or he simply had an amazing perception to cover his surprise under that warm smile of his.

As Ace and Deuce sat just in front of the barstool, the three of them talked peacefully for a while. Even Ace joined in when a topic interests him, albeit his expression was still as rocky as ever when he spoke.

"Oh, right." Deuce suddenly paused her friendly conversation with Jack as she clamped her mouth with her hand in remembrance. Both men quirked their eyebrows at her as she continued. "I just remembered that I promised Mrs. Gwen's daughter a diagnosing."

As panics started to overflow her façade, Jack poured her with bright grin again as the man rose from his seat to fill a glass with beer for other customer. "Then you should go, Deuce~ Last I reckon, Mrs. Gwen is pretty scary when she's mad."

That didn't falter Deuce, though. She panicked not because of the scariness of Mrs. Gwen's outburst, but because she forgot her promise. She cautiously eyed Ace for a moment. In return, Ace stared back at her for a good three seconds before he sighed. "Just go."

Indeed, he wouldn't go anywhere, because there was something that he wanted to ask Jack without Deuce knowing.

"But…" She hesitantly mused. Around the same time, the two young men quickly responded to her.

"Worry not. I won't go anywhere."

"I'll keep Ace accompanied till you get back."

She was almost surprised by how solid their responses were with each other. Considering their helpful answer for a while, she then sighed as she rose from her seat.

"Thank you very much, Ace-san, Jack-san." Deuce bowed at them when she was standing upright. "I'll try to be back as soon as possible."

Ace simply nodded from his seat when Jack grinned and gave her a thumbs-up in return. The healer smiled in gratitude at the two before she ran outside the building to her patient's house.

As soon as Ace felt Deuce's presence was far from them, he steepled his hands and stared at Jack. The cheerful man, though, beat him to a punch, still with his grin intact.

"So~ what is it that you've been meaning to ask me?" He crossed his arms behind his coiffed hair. "Ace the Caller?"

That did not surprise Ace that much. He had taken the possibility of Jack actually knew him all along yet he hid it, and he was correct. And to be honest, no matter how warm and bright Jack's smiles were, there were something around him that emitted his warrior aura out loud. Not to mention that Ace secretly managed to see a cut on Jack's palm; it was definitely not from a kitchen knife of sort, since home utensils didn't put a wound that deep… It was definitely from a bigger weapon, perhaps swords or such. Still, that wasn't what Ace had in mind.

"Just want to confirm this." He calmly rested his mouth behind his crossed hands. "Besides that lady… Deuce, are there any other doctors around this town?"

And Jack wasn't able to hide the slight surprise on his face, since he was not expecting a question like that. "Nope. Little Deuce is the only one healer in Korushi. And I should add, one of the best healers ever lived."

That confirmed Ace's suspicion. The physician that Cater talked about was definitely Deuce.

"I see…"

"So~" Jack cut the tension again. This time, though, he was a bit more serious than before, although his seriousness was still tad overshadowed by his luminosity. "I'll guess that Suzaku want to make their moves~?"

That almost triggered Ace's surprise, however, Jack continued his explanation while defensively held his hands up.

"Just so you know, Ace~ Korushi might be officially written as a part of Byakko's country, but we never consider ourselves as a part of them. Not for the past seven years, anyway." The tavernmaster shrugged a little. "And His Majesty didn't even care for us, anyway. Why should we follow him?"

Ace found himself silenced with that. Seven years, eh? So that basically means…

"Bingo!" Jack figured what Ace had in mind as he flicked his finger. "We're a free town. Or if any, Korushi actually wants to follow Suzaku's lead. Y'know~ Suzaku's pretty cool with their government~."

Ace wasn't usually intrigued with something like that, but he was right here, since he could actually relate to that. The young adult smirked and nodded. Perhaps Korushi wasn't as bad as he thought originally; This Jack guy, that beautiful healer Deuce, and even King of the Quicksilver resided here.

Though, a loud voice erupted from the side that quickly captured the two men's attention. Just at the moment Jack recognized the source of the voice, the said man let out a notable groan.

"Not this again."

On the far side of the room, three big, burly and dirty men were occupying the same table, and on the table were playing cards, along with gold coins; they were obviously gambling. Still, what disturbed other customers wasn't that, it was their laughs that basically disrespect the other customers. Every time one of them spoke, it was so loud that it might be heard from outside.

"Again?" Ace only watched them from his current seat with a mild disgust. "Frequent visitors here, I take?"

Jack sighed. "I wish they aren't. They often make things uglier here."

"…As if we couldn't tell from their looks."

Ace drily commented as Jack scratched his hair in agreement. After a moment, the two, along with the rest of the customers decided to ignore the three men.

Unfortunately, they didn't stop at just that. At one occasion, one of them suddenly harassed one of the tavern wenches that were passing through. One man just touched her butt and the said wench was shrieking. Of course, there was other customer that was not amused by that action, he stood up to them, but the three lecherous men simply intimidated the man away by showing their muscles. And as the said man cowered in fear, the three laughed at his cowardice.

That brought angers to other customers, yet no one else stood. Jack, on the other hand, had a flash, flicker of furies in his eyes for a bit. Just when Jack was about to stop them, an arm withheld him from going any further.

It was Ace who stopped him, and in his eyes were flames of disgusts. He had enough of this himself.

"It's unbecoming of a tavernmaster to dirty his hand." The smaller young adult coolly said. "Leave this one to me."

Ace rose from his seat as Jack realized what Ace meant. He tried to reach out to him, but Ace calmly stated another sentences.

"Worry not, no blood shall be shed here. Consider this as my thanks for the information."

Jack was petrified for a while, before his hand dropped to his side. For now, he would have to trust Ace with his idea.

The three men already let go of the wench, and they were laughing as they played their cards when Ace approached them from their blind spot. Their lousy laughs were put on hold when a bag of Gils fell to the wooden table. That captured the attention of every living being inside the tavern.

"How about it? A room for another one?"

Certainly, that voice along with the bag of Gils was Ace's. He stood fearlessly against the three men. One of them quickly grinned as he looked at the bag of money. "You're in, kid!"

"Thank you." Ace nodded and he took this position on the empty chair. "Although, how about we add some more rules so that this game will be more interesting? More Gils are involved, of course."

In unison, the three of them grinned hungrily.

"And what is that, kid?" The biggest one of them spoke.

"I'll bet two thousands Gils on every round." Ace steepled again, hiding his smirk behind his crossed fingers. "However, if you lose, I'll ask you to leave this tavern and not to come into this place again in the future."

Ace's tone was very condescending, and one of them was already red from anger. Though before he could let out his outburst, the other two grinned.

"Deal."

They were so happy right now. The young man before them didn't even know that they were amazing at cheating the game. And from the rules, they only needed one of them to win the game to obtain the easy money.

Ace merely flashed them a smile that was more of a sarcastic and an underestimating one than to a polite one. He then took the card and shuffled them, his smile soon upgraded into a smirk.

Oh, this was going to be _fun_.

…

Deuce panted as she ran on the path toward the tavern. The diagnosing took way longer than she originally thought. It was close to evening already and the tavern would be full soon. She had made Ace-san waited so long, so she strode as fast as she could, and after good two minutes of running, the tavern was presented before her.

And indeed, she could tell that the place was full already from the sound of the crowds that was audible even from outside. The healer huffed for fresh airs first before she stepped inside.

As soon as the girl was inside the building, the crowds were cheering wildly. No, not at her, but at the particular table on the far end of the room. Around the table were four men, three of them were a little fat, yet the other one had an ideal figure, along with an elegant aura compared to the other three.

Deuce blinked her eyes to confirm her vision. And she was not mistaken, especially by the silver coat that was draped on the man's shoulder; it was Ace.

The girl peeked at them, but she couldn't grasp a good look of them since they were surrounded by excited crowds. She could only notice that Ace's expression was way more amused than ever, and the other three were clearly distressed.

"Thank you very much. I'll be taking this one with me as well." Ace stated with mild amusement as he pulled the gold coins to his side. "Another round? Or you are still proud with your persistence? I'll have to remind you that I already have around thirty thousand Gils on my side right now, however."

As Ace's undying smirk pressured them, two of the big men quickly rose from their seat to run from this place shamefully. The remaining one slammed his forearms on the wooden table first in depression before he followed his friends, leaving Ace alone in his spot as the young man grinned in satisfaction. At the sight before them, the already excited crowds burst in excitement further.

"Hahaha! Their faces were priceless!"

"Take that, you losers!"

"You're amazing, young man!"

Needless to say, a particular girl was still confused. What had happened here?

As her curiosity got the best of her, Deuce made her way to his side by putting a good use of her height: ducking and slipping through while still politely saying 'excuse me' at everyone she passed through. It was arduous for her, but she succeeded in the end.

"Ace-san?" Deuce called when she was close enough at him, and she earned his attention, although Ace was not really surprised by this. Carefully ducking, she was now out of the crowd and next to him already. "What happened?"

Ace was used to reply to questions gently, but he was very amused right now, and he only shrugged his shoulders while smiling a bit. "Just taking care of pests diplomatically. No harm was done, of course."

That, though, only left Deuce with more questions. However, she wasn't able to ask that out loud as a certain young tavernmaster raised his beer mug. Honestly, Deuce knew Jack for a while, but the amount of amusement on his face was… surprisingly very high, just like how it was on Ace's.

"For our winner!"

The crowds cheered crazily as they raised their respective mugs.

"YEAH!"

And then they swallowed their beers enjoyably. Ace did not have a glass with him, though. He let out a sigh of satisfaction before he rose from his seat, grabbing the bag of Gils with him.

"Jack."

The said man stopped his drink for a while as Ace passed the bag of money to him. Ace only took what was rightfully his (the two thousands Gils, which was his stock for betting), and the remaining of them was barely in his mind. Yuuki was not born in the place that was covered with money, and until this day, he never thought them as something big as well.

As Jack received the money, he winked at Ace, his grin never left his face. "Thanks, man!"

Ace waved back at him as if telling him to not to mention it. Seriously, he knew that he had a job to do and he must rest completely for one full day for his recuperation according to Deuce, but moment like this had to be treasured once in a while. Now, he just needed to return to Deuce's clinic and had some rest before resuming his mission tomorrow.

Speaking of Deuce… Where did she go? She was before him just then, and she was nowhere right now.

After a moment, he scanned the left part of this bar and he found her, surrounded by different crowds. The crowds were mixture of those who already knew Deuce and those who haven't.

"Are you his suitor, Miss?"

"Miss Deuce, since when you are acquainted with such a handsome man?"

"How long have you been in this secret relationship, Miss Deuce?"

Deuce was never as confused as right now. She bashfully fidgeted around as she defensively raised her arms to wave as the sign of resistance. "N-No, Ace-san is not my suitor! He is my-"

At the sight that was somewhat déjà vu, Ace mouthed a sigh again. Jack, of course, took this a good sign for him to raise his beer mug again.

"For our winner, and his sweetheart!"

Everyone who had a mug of beer with them raised their respective mug along with Jack's lead. Deuce, of course, only gasped and panicked at the hype.

"N-No! This is all a misunderstandi—"

Sadly, nobody actually heard her protest as they drunk themselves on the unexplainable taste of the beers. God, this was too embarrassing for her.

"Jack-san!"

The said man didn't hear her as he continue to sip his beer. That, or he did it on purpose. Before she even knew it, the crowds were on her again.

"So, when will you two get married?"

"You're a charming lady and he is a handsome young lad. You two will make a great family."

More congratulations and questions were on her path as she grew more and more milquetoast from that. "A-Ah, n-no! We-we are not like that! A-Ace-san! Help me straighten things out here!"

She desperately raised her hand to call for Ace's help, but the said man merely grinned. In return, he raised his hand to wave back at her. As he turned on his heel, his grin was now spiced with his chuckles.

"I'll wait outside, Deuce. Don't take too long."

As Ace stepped out of the tavern, the girl could only whine at her current circumstances.

"ACE-SAN!"

…

With some miracle, Deuce had managed to get out from the… horrendous crowds, and she was walking side by side with Ace, who already wore his overcoat correctly, although it was still unbuttoned. Along the dusky path, they walked in silence, with Deuce grumbled from time to time.

"Mou." She pouted, a noticeable frown was on her face. "That was mean!"

"That was just a joke, Deuce. Do not think big of it." He shrugged calmly as he eyed his par's pout. Though, every time he was about to meet her eyes, she would throw her face aside with a 'hmph'.

"You can say that because you don't know how young women around this place behave." She exclaimed.

…Well, if she said it that way, Ace didn't really have a sensible counter to that. He was bad at deciphering a girl's feeling in general. The golden haired man sighed and he smirked again. "Consider yourself an entertainment for my slow day, then."

To that, the young physician quickly flashed her attention at him, her frowns getting deeper.

"What is that supposed to mean!?"

Her tone had a little anger inside, but Ace was barely intimidated. In fact, he laughed heartily as Deuce pouted again, and she then shoved her hand on his side.

"Ace-san is crueler than I gave you credit for."

"Is that so? My apologize."

Ace's heartful laugh once again erupted from his mouth, albeit a bit lower than before. She sighed dejectedly before she made a weak smile on her own lips.

"Still, Ace-san…" Her tone returned to her kind, friendly tone. "That was very amazing of you to stop those people from wreaking havoc in Jack-san's home. I should thank you on my behalf as one of Korushi's villagers."

"I deserved none of it. I just hate noisy people, that's all."

His straight and direct reasoning only brought Deuce to her giggles. Before Ace could take another step forward, she was positioning herself in front of him, smiling like an angel.

"I'll take that back, Ace-san. You're actually friendlier than I thought." With that, she raised a finger to poke her patient's face playfully.

Ace was astonished by her movement, and that was still an understatement. He might enjoy a chat or two at times, but he never once let someone else disturbed his privacy, let alone a girl. Never once there was someone else that touched his face that way, and Deuce did it easily. What made it weird, though, was that Ace did not react to that, and he was called as the lone wolf, alright.

It was as if… He was comfortable with her presence already.

"Quit it." He quickly reigned in that wishful thought as he flung his face aside to evade looking at her face. God, he just hoped that the night was dark enough to cover the blushes on his face. Ace powerlessly opened his mouth to say something. While he managed to do so, the words came out later than he expected. "That naivety of yours is uncanny, Deuce."

His face was hot, and he only hoped that Deuce did not touch it. In which she didn't.

"Am I again?"

Her adorable, angelic giggles only added the tension on Ace's part. Why was it getting… harder to just to look at her face? Ace froze on his spot, unable to mutter a word for the alluring beauty before him.

"Listen—"

Ace suddenly widened his eyes as he let his words unfinished. His steps were getting heavier, and his lips were parted with each other. No, this tension was different that the previous one. This one… was just like the other night. A killing intention.

Someone was watching him, or more exactly, them.

"Ace-san?" Deuce tilted her head, confused at Ace's sudden pause.

This unexplainable pressure… This one was something that he was not unfamiliar with. And this could be bad. No, if he did not move soon, it could be _worse_.

"Deuce, watch out!"

"Eh-!?"

As if on time, Ace grabbed Deuce in his arms and jumped to evade one incoming arrow from their side. The said arrow bolted as fast as a thunder and ended up puncturing a wooden sign. Ace fell to his knee as he landed, and Deuce was pushed tight against his chest.

"Good thing you dodged, because to be honest, I actually never wanted my target to die before they looked at me."

With one arm holding tightly to Deuce's back, Ace picked up his cards with his free arm. His eyes narrowed at the shooter. This time, he managed to get a good look of his enemy as there were no trees, or bushes involved.

And truth to be told, Ace was not too fond of fighting this famous sniper on his current condition.

"Trey the Hraesvelgr…"

* * *

**DANDANDAN CONFLICT.**

**Now, things can only get moooore serious from here. Class Zero's musical band members are here already, and more of them are going to be introduced soon. Hraesvelgr means… Well, google it. It's the name of a legendary winged giant of Norse Myths.**

**Okay, reviews, and I'll write even faster. Even one review counts.**


	5. Verse IV : Scepter of the Nightfall

**Hoo? What's this? An update in the same week? Gee, I haz mai free taimu.**

**Type-0 fan- Thanks, man! I loved, and still love our conversation, and I hope you can keep inspiring me as well! Sadly, I have other plan for Nine and he'll not going to appear soon. But don't worry, when he appears, I'll promise it'll be a GRAND entrance.**

**Regoli- My deepest gratitude. I love prose, and thus, I love how you put detailed review into my story. I am glad that you enjoyed my take on the characters. Worry not, Trey has his reason for doing so, I softly implies it in this chapter, and presumably will define it for sure in the upcoming chapter(s).**

**Kunagiri- No, I don't know you. I know only of Crystallium. GET OUT.**

**Except no. Yeah, ROKKU N ROOOORUU xD Someone definitely lurked on pixiv too much *coughnotuscough*. Well, actually, I take that infamous quote of King as 'Lock and Roll' to 'Rock and Roll', since… you know, it got the vibes of gun's usage. **

**GroundZeroFirework- I have more plot bunnies than you might guess ;3. Expect more plot twist and surprise in the future chapter. Yep, I basically spoil that no big surprise will happen in this chapter, but eeeh, I suppose you guys will scroll down to read until the end, right?**

**Seki- GODDAMIT STOP SPAMMING ME. But you tagged my Ace anyway so your argument is invalid haha- Also where did you get that lovely Deuce icon owo SEND ME THE ORIGINAL PIC. Another also, YEEEAAAH! Because roleplaying in any place that is not DW is TOO FRICKIN' MAINSTREAM Bl**

**Guest(s) and Kaiser Knuckles- Thanks, I'll try to keep them in-character for this chapter and incoming chapters as well.**

**Jack Hargreave- While you bring a good point about using Norse name is rather off in this story, yes, I partly admit that it sounds rather off, but I got my reason. Because I'll use a different myths for different country here to give the scent of… variety. For example, I'll use Norse's for Byakko's, Mesopotamian's for Seiryu's and Irish's for Genbu's. For Suzaku's? We'll get to that in later chapters.**

**Stop flattering me with writing IC-ly, gaiz, I am only writing from the perspective of sane man without wearing my shipping goggles intact. Really, I love romances, but shipping tends to put a biasing to characters or pairing, which have the probability to destroy the story along with the personalities. Of course, I never say that I am perfect as well, and I might somewhat slip, so if you guys point that out for me, that helps a lot. Honestly, just say it right on review if you want to, I don't mind. This game's lore is just _that_ huge, y'know.**

**Also what the hell, this story jumped from 700 hits to 1.000 hits already from the last chapter only, meaning around 300 hits from you guys, and believe me, I never advertised this fic somewhere else, not yet at least. To that, have my manly kisses and hugs. You guys deserved it.**

**Blah blah disclaimer blah blah blah**

* * *

_Verse IV : Scepter of the Nightfall_

* * *

Eight yawned sleepily as he shifted his position on his seat again. To be honest, it had been a while since he had slept like that. Usually, he would pay no attention to his drowsiness and kept on training until his body was fatigued enough to force his mind to took a rest, but this one occasion? He simply snored peacefully for a bit there.

Probably because she was on his side, and she made him feel comfortable and safe.

The brunet whirled his head a bit to his right side, and on his shoulder was Cater's head. Despite how hard the surface of the cave they were in, Cater seemed to be making herself at home, as her arms were circling around his trained one and she hugged it like it was a cotton pillow. She had been sleeping for hours and her subtle snores were comely rhymes to his ears. Of course, Eight knew that she deserved more rest, since he had long acknowledged that Cater's job was exhausting, as she was required to go here and there.

He smiled at her sleeping figure. The place was dark, but her presence just made things somewhat shinier to a fault. Silently, he patted Cater's silky hair again before he looked up at the cave's black ceiling. With his free arm bent to prevent the back of his head to crash the rocky wall, Eight yawned before he leaned his head back on his bent arm. The situation was a bit too peaceful and it soon stirred Eight to his slumber.

Except he couldn't, since soon his eyes flashed open out of sudden. And he quickly rose to his knee as the martial artist shifted his attention to the direction of the grotto's entrance sternly. Certainly, the girl on his side flinched a bit at his action, although she was undoubtedly still napping peacefully.

And Eight couldn't let her stay like that, so he quickly shook her body, hoping that Cater would soon came to her sense as this situation was dire.

"Minori… Minori!" He wasted no time in admitting his worry over her over his tone. His next word, however, was more suggesting, if not ordering. "Stay on your guard, quick!"

Cater rubbed her eyes tiredly as she questioned her partner's actions and words through her dumbfounded face.

"Miyu? What is it?"

To that, the young man pointed at the direction of the entrance, the one that leads to the Byakko's region. She blinked twice before she grasped what he indicated with her hearing.

Sounds of humans' steps. Many of them. From the far end of the caves.

To put it bluntly, the steps were actually _pretty_ far from them, but both the young pair was trained to be able to capture even the lowest frequency of sound with their ears. Cater let out a 'tch' at this, her face was now filled with discomfort. "How many… of them, approximately?"

"…Fourteen… Fifteen…" Eight responded with his eyes closed to concentrate on counting them. Though, he soon opened them again as he shook his head. "…No, twenty should be a safe bet."

Both turned to meet each other's gazes. They were able to look at each other's face clearly despite the darkness of the zone. The two childhood friends simply nodded at each other as their next move. They required no words to confirm each other's tactic; they had the same plan in their respective brain. Eight tightened his leather, fingerless gauntlets as Cater grabbed her gun from her backpack before they moved soundlessly towards the other entrance.

…

The Four Heavenly Kings.

That was a phrase that no being in Oriense didn't know. The title that went down in generations, the name of four young warriors that stood above the clouds due to their unimaginable strengths, with one name represented one country respectively.

The Eastern Wind Solanus, Ace "The Caller" from the Fiery Region, Suzaku.

The Northern Wind Septrentio, Trey "The Hraesvelgr" from the Beast Region, Byakko.

The Western Wind Favonius, Nine "The Tiamat" from the Draconic Region, Seiryu.

The Southern Wind Auster, Sice "The Dullahan" from the Fortress Region, Genbu.

Tales about them were proudly presented to children as their aspiration, and military strategist often compared their features with each other through words, since they never fought against each other directly as they seemed to have their own agendas every time.

At least not until this day, where under the peaceful nightingale of the outer part of Korushi's town, two of them encountered each other with their respective weapon in their hands; Ace the Caller and Trey the Hraesvelgr.

Ace let his silver pants colored with dusts as he was on his knees with Deuce holding tightly at him, his eyes locked against the archer's piercing eyes. The blond with bow simply moved strands of his front hair before he picked another arrow from his quiver on his back.

"That was merely a demonstration, Ace the Caller." He stated calmly, before he nocked an arrow against the bowstring and drew the bow at his foe's direction. "This time, I guarantee I won't miss."

Ace fought many archers in the past, and from how Trey presented himself in front of him, his style of using his bow was way more stable compared to those hundreds of unnamed archers. Which basically was saying, things were bad for Ace.

"Oh?" Despite how prepared Trey was, Ace could tell that he would not shoot his arrow for as long as he still held Deuce in his arms, so he decided to counter his threat with words of his own, his tone was certainly mocking. "Attacking a civilian now, Trey the Hraesvelgr? That was pretty low, even for someone who originated from Byakko."

At Ace's words, Deuce mustered a surprised gasp, although Ace quickly eyed the physician from the corner of his eyes, as comforting as he could, and told her to not to panic by nodding at her, in which the girl soon answered with her own weak nod. Though, he needed to think of a smart way to get her out of this confrontation as soon as possible or Deuce might be involved further in this fierce battle between him and the sharpshooter.

On the other hand, Trey's eyes were painted with anger in a flash, although it flashed out as fast as it flashed in. Still, he didn't break his stance and his arrow was aimed at Ace's head all along.

"It works the other way around, actually." The Hraesvelgr replied, a small disdaining smirk engrossed his lips. "Let's just say that I believed that you would jump to prevent it from happening, Ace the Caller." His smirk getting wider, and his tone turned more sarcastic. "And congratulations, you actually did it. I expected nothing less."

That actually impacted Ace's ego, as he visually clenched his teeth in anger and his grip on Deuce was getting tighter. This guy… just made a game out of his action.

"What if I wasn't quick enough?" Ace blasted back at Trey, his temper raised to a degree. In return, Trey stayed as calm as before when he responded.

"Playing rhetorical, aren't we? Nonetheless, it would be your fault for both failing my expectation of The Caller and letting that maiden die. And if I may add, I am honestly surprised why you decided to take a hitch in a town when you are a cold-blood killer from other country."

The warrior of Suzaku tried his best to not to let his rage took over his mind, although he couldn't do it completely. Cautiously, he loosened his grip so that the shoes of the girl in his arms touched the concrete path and she could walk away by her own. The girl however, was still gripping her hands on his shoulders; her façade was filled with distress and worry as she stared at Ace.

Apparently, though, the guy didn't reply her stare with his own stare. Instead, his eyes were fixated with seriousness as Trey's image was reflected on both of his azure spheres.

Still not noticing Deuce's anxiety, The Caller opened his mouth against to retort back. "Very cold of you, Hraesvelgr." That was not quite a form of sarcasm, it was very true in front of Ace's eyes, in fact.

"You're acting all prissy now, Caller?" Trey's eyes narrowed, anger started to occupy his eyes as well. "Your words does not justify of what you had done to my subordinates in the woods."

And that moment, the two legendary warriors acknowledged things already as their glares connected with each other: More words were unnecessary, only a fight could settle this.

"Deuce." Ace said, his tone was unusually deep. "Turn around and leave this place as fast as possible."

If any, the worry on the girl's face was more visible. Tightly, she clenched her hand on his chests, and Ace couldn't help to turn his attention at her. As his eyes met hers, Deuce's green one said everything that her mouth couldn't.

_Don't do this, Ace-san._

_Please._

Ace wished he couldn't read what Deuce tried to say through her eyes, but unfortunately, he could, and that only put him in more pressure. Swiftly, Ace looked at his enemy again, who was still waiting for him to let go of her, before he looked back at her. It was hard for him to muster comforting words, especially at times like this.

"Don't worry." His tone was softer than ever, albeit his face was filled with seriousness. "It'll be over soon, I promise."

The girl tried to open her mouth again to respond, but no words were out, only breathless gasps and moans. She knew she should put more effort for stopping them from fighting, but Ace's words just now had made her will gone. He didn't even try to escape… the inescapable.

It was very commendable of him, and it would be her fault if she were to stop him.

With laments all over her emotion, Deuce hesitantly removed herself from Ace's arm. Ace himself made things easier by loosened the grip and let his hand fell to his side. No sooner, Deuce stood on her own feet as she slowly walked to the side.

To be honest, Ace wasn't perfectly content with Deuce only positioned herself there, but he would take what he had for now. The silver coated man stood and brushed the dusts off of his pants for a short moment while the physician was making her beeline aside.

Two men entered, and only one could leave.

As soon as Deuce was out of their range, instantly both men pulled their weapon and launched it at each other. Ace's card did not meet Trey's arrow directly, they simply passed through their enemy's weapon side by side and bolted through until they pierced the tip of each other's cheek.

Both still didn't move from their spot as bloods trickled down from the cut on their cheek. The two young men said nothing, only glares were traded between them.

Ace and Trey both did that on purpose, to test how serious their enemy was. And indeed, the sparks between their eyes already explained everything, the cut on their cheek only reinforced that further. One small mistake, and a guaranteed, fatal wound would come. Quickly, the two warriors drew their respective weapon before they darted them again at each other, this time they clashed against each other and the card and the arrow fell to the ground at the same time.

Trey was a little surprised at this. Just now, he had shot an arrow, which was impelled by his oak bow, and his enemy used a mere card, yet their strength was on par. Pretty unbelievable, no matter how you looked at it. His arrows were made of the best of reeds, if not woods, and Ace's were made of… papers. Realistically, that equal clash just now was impossible, for an arrow definitely had a harder material than a card.

Then again, the man before him was not an ordinary man. His skill with cards was widely known around the world.

In a blink of eyes, the Caller pulled another two cards and threw it at the marksman's face. The said archer, though, evaded it with ease by cocking his head a little to his side. In return to that, Trey grabbed another arrow and shot it at his enemy. Just like what Trey had done, Ace simply dodged it by moving a bit. Soon, rains of arrows and cards were happening between them.

On the side, Deuce's body was shaking as she stood terrorized. No, this sight was just like that day. The one day that she had tried to forget so hard. Her legs were trembling as she brought her two hands to clamp her mouth, which were trembling as well. Weakly, her upper lip was parting with her lower one.

"N-No… P-please…"

As she begged with her barely audible voice, her pupils were dilating and tears were swelling around them. On the other hand, Ace and Trey couldn't pay any attention to her, as they were too busy trading strikes with each other. Subliminally, as Deuce's right arm was falling to her side, it was starting to shine with green lights.

"…S-Stop…"

Again, her plea did not reach them, the competition between Ace and Trey only got more and more fierce. This time, along with her voice, her shining hand was raised up as she directed it to the two fighters.

"STO-"

A bang.

Deuce couldn't hide her gasp at the sudden explosion before her eyes. As she eyed the two young men, they weren't able to hide the surprise on their face as well, especially Trey, who was the closest to the explosion; the boom was just right in front of his right foot. Unconsciously, they paused their battle.

Another bang, and this time it was directed at the spot just in front of Ace's foot, as if it was to prevent him from moving any further.

Three pairs of eyes turned to the side to see what was behind that entire explosion. Deuce was the first one to notice, and she let her hand fell to her side again as the light around it was dimming into nothingness. She quickly wiped the water from her eyes as from the side, a mysterious figure stepped in calmly.

"I thought I've made myself pretty clear…"

The figure quickly took something from his side, and that was when everything was clear for both Ace and Trey. In the said man's right hand was a golden gun, which was aimed at Ace, and on his other one was a silver gun, which was aimed at Trey collectedly.

"…That I would not tolerate things like this in my town."

Two men had entered, and another one entered as well.

Ace and Trey merely narrowed their eyes at the third men, while Deuce was the first to break the silence by addressing the name of the figure.

"King-san."

…

Cater let out an oppressed huff as her body slumped against the outer wall of the Korushi's cave. Her weapon of choice was probably one and the only magick gun ever existed in Oriense. The girl was able to shoot a magick through her pistol in the price of her stamina and her magick power. Cater's gun was effective and strong, indeed, yet just like every other weapons, it had its pros and cons. The most noticeable weakness was this one; major usage of energy, without a doubt.

How she wished the weapon didn't strain her this much right now.

On her left side was a dead body of a soldier in Byakko's armor, and her right side were three others. She knew that she needed to respect the dead, but she was pissed, thus she kicked one of the dead bodies irritably.

Soon, a certain man approached her slowly and offered her his hand.

"I've told you that you need more training."

From the corner of her eyes, Eight's grin radiated the cavern's exit. The cuts and bruises on their body were many, but not even one of them was deep enough to tear a scar on their bodies.

"Oh, gee." Cater took Eight's hand with a slight groan, and she used his help to stand. "Sorry for not being a guy who locked himself in a dark cave."

"Shut it, you." He retorted back as his partner chuckled. Before long, he joined her with his own chuckles.

To be honest, Cater was actually quite glad that Eight managed to listen to the enemies' footsteps back there. Sure, she was able to hear what usually couldn't be heard and it helped her, especially when she needed to eavesdrop a conversation, but Eight's hearing was… godly. His was even better than those of animals'. Probably because he polished it as his surviving skill, but Cater couldn't tell exactly.

And that was how they managed to ambush the ambushers of Byakko, in short.

"Anyway, Miyu." The girl put her gun back into her backpack as she took out a bottle of potion in return, which she soon passed to her partner. "Got any idea why these guys are here?"

As Eight grabbed the potion easily, he quickly acknowledged what she indicated; those Byakko soldiers. "Who knows?" He shrugged a little as he opened the bottle, before he put the opened tip by his mouth and enjoyed the restorative liquid. "Too weak to be vanguard units, at the very least. Probably just scouts."

"Scouts, huh?" She blankly commented as she grabbed a potion bottle for herself. "Guess Byakko want to attack us soon."

"Again, who knows?"

The two stared at each other blankly before they shrugged again at the same time. Frankly, the two of them didn't really require an answer: If those Byakkos were going to attack them, they would simply kick their asses; the two of them were more than prepared.

Their peaceful moment was interrupted when a mellifluous chirp of a bird resided to their ears. Curiously, the two friends stared above at the night sky, only to notice a pigeon was approaching them. The said bird looked no different than other pigeons, only with a piece of paper tied to its legs and a teal scarf circled around its neck. Soon, the white pigeon landed on Cater's defenseless shoulder.

Cater blinked her eyes at the bird on her shoulder once, looking a little confused, while Eight only tilted his head in curiosity. Five seconds passed, and the girl noticed what was this all about and she slowly undid the paper on the bird's leg.

"Who?" Eight asked intuitively, his curiosity got the best of him.

"Carla's." She replied without further ado, her eyes were too concentrated at releasing the letter off of the bird. "You kne— Oh wait, you wouldn't, would you, Mister Socially Awkward?"

At her last statement, she turned her attention at him, a grin painted her lips. Cater knew things would get serious sooner or later, but if she got a chance to raise the mood around her, she would make a good use of it. In return, Eight only folded his hand, his expression turned a bit grumpier.

"You know." She continued as she brought her head closer to him, her grin got more teasing than before. "Carla got a great… asset. She's kinda big on that one."

Just when the exact definition of her sentences got into him, all of sudden his face was blushing with different shades of reds. Eight subconsciously took one step back as he raised his left forearm to cover his gasping mouth. To make it worse for him, Cater made some breast-squeezing motion jokingly. Boy, Eight swore he was terrified that he almost shouted his conflicted feelings right now.

Obviously, this kind of sight pulled Cater's trigger to laugh with all her might, which didn't help Eight at all. Her laughs were kinda loud, as she even put her free hand on her tummy and she almost rolled her head back in laughter. The young man only grumbled and scratched his head in embarrassment as she enjoyed her time laughing at him.

"H- ha-haha- hahahaha! Miyu, your face just now-!"

"Oh, shush. You are being too loud."

"S-Sorry, b-but your-"

"Just read the letter already!"

He was generally the epitome of calm, but when it came to things like this, flustering out of embarrassment wasn't something that he could hold in for long, and he did so. His partner didn't seem to be cooperating to him. Not as quick as him, at least.

"Okay, okay." She muttered between her laughs, as they were not gone yet. Her grin soon degraded into a friendly, amused smile. In Eight's vision, though, that was the feline-like side of her, the one that she always put on whenever she was extraordinarily happy, which was not too seldom of her. As the young lady released the bird of its assigned letter, the pigeon soon flew away. "You know, you really need to stop being such a loner and spend some time outside of the cave."

A small pause and she unfolded the folder letter, she then looked at him with chummier aura for a moment before she resumed her opening of the letter. "You're an adult now. Why don't you try finding a suitor or something? That's definitely going to be a sight for your sore eyes."

Her statement only put Eight in his expressionless state. He crossed his arms calmly. Finding a suitor? Minori advised him to do that? He unconsciously let out a sigh that was close to a scoff at that. He tried to make that as inaudible as possible, and he managed to do. Following that, the martial artist simply eyed her with his red orbs calmly, and they soon travelled over her whole figure.

_If only she knew._

Eight's expression stayed stern for a while, until he noticed the huge shock that was written on his childhood friend's face; Cater's eyes suddenly got very wide and her mouth almost made an audible 'Wha-'. The young man, of course, didn't take that as a good sign of any sort. He also made no attempt to hide his concern.

"What is written there?"

Cater's mouth opened a little bigger before she quickly closed it again in distress. Quickly, she clenched the letter with her hand before she tossed the rolled paper at her friend. Eight grabbed the paper with ease, but surprises were written all over his face. Furthermore, she quickly rose from her position and ran past him, tapping his shoulder while at the go.

"Go to Rubrum at your earliest convenience if you could, Miyu. Things suddenly got out of hand. I gotta jet."

With that, the girl departed from her partner and the male warrior was left to his own confusion. Deciding that it was the best course of action, he unfolded the disorganized letter to see what was written there.

And he soon understood what the deal was, as his eyes went as wide as his childhood friend's just then as he read the content of the letter.

…

They once glared at each other, but now they weren't. Their glares were reduced into intimidating stares, which they aimed at the third person. The said man, apparently, did not budge against their discomfort.

"King of the Quicksilver." Trey spoke calmly, his bow dropped to his side as his next words echoed in the night. "What an unpleasant surprise to find you here."

"The feeling is mutual, Hraesvelgr." King spun his silver gun once, although its barrel stay aimed at Trey when the pistol had finished its' spinning. His face didn't do much justice to hide the unhappy expression the gunman felt right now. "I believe I didn't invite you to come here, especially to throw a tantrum at this hour."

As Ace noticed that Trey let his guard down, he knew that that was the biggest opening he ever asked for. Still, he did nothing, as from his side, King's golden gun was threatening him to not to attack further. To that, the smaller blonde put his arm down, yet his guard were definitely still up should anything bad happen.

"Huh." Trey scoffed at King. "Your abilities are getting more sluggish, I take? Or do you have any lucid reasoning for letting a top rated assassin from Suzaku roam around this town?"

His long wording still didn't put any impact on King's face, the man kept his expression straightly stern. "He was injured, and our physician took him in. Want to guess who wounded him?"

At that point, King narrowed his eyes to put more pressure into his words at the archer. Of course, Trey, being one of a kind of million archers, replied at him by returning King's glares with his own, which had the same level of intimidation.

The cold atmosphere of the night winds was the only thing that followed that, the four people that stood straight on the land of Korushi didn't give any noticeable response. Not until King tapped the side of his pistol.

"Hraesvelgr, this one is definitely a mistake on your part to initiate violence here." He said sternly. "Of course, I never said that the Caller is free of iniquity as well."

Ace compressed his eyes at King with disagreement first before the bigger man gestured at Deuce's direction. Noticing what he indicated, Ace shifted his attention at the young girl. The said young lady, apparently, hadn't managed to wipe the whole tears on her eyes. When Deuce noticed Ace's stare in return, she tried her best to wipe her teary eyes again. Still, Ace had seen the result of what he shouldn't do. Guilt-ridden, the young assassin threw his face somewhere else.

Trey stood wordlessly as he considered things. After a moment, he raised his bow again, this time at King's direction. His emotion was as mature and calm as ever.

"Who actually decide whether things are legitimate or not in Byakko, King of the Quicksilver?" The blond sharpshooter casually pulled another arrow from his quiver as he nocked it again. "I am under the direct order of His Majesty to keep the security of our nation. Hence, I'll raise my bow without any exception when it comes to that."

Trey's tone didn't betray the pressure the put through his eyes. Shocked, the three other people muttered small gasps at that, before King and Ace raised their weapons in defense.

"…Is what I would like to say."

That captured everyone else's surprises as the marksman suddenly put a smirk that showed no sign of aggressiveness. While they were astonished at Trey's sudden change of expression, the said archer shot the arrow vertically upright as fast as a breeze. A good five second, and Trey's arms fell to his side again, alongside the arrow that soared on the sky before, which stabbed the ground just right beside his shoes perfectly.

"Which basically saying, fighting someone from Byakko was, is, and will never be one thing that I do." With that, the gallant sniper simply sheathed his bow, wiped the blood on his cheek and raised a finger at Ace. "The next time we encounter each other, is where we will settle this, Caller."

Somehow, Ace agreed to follow his rival's action. He put his cards back into his bag, before he calmly returned his words, not even intimidated by an inch.

"I am looking forward for that day, Hraesvelgr."

The two traded smirks casually, and small 'Heh' could be heard from both of them. They were content with stopping the fight right here, yet they basically expressed that they were happier that things will be concluded on their next encounter. Both of them were the same; they did things elegantly.

As Trey calmly stepped outside the town in the dark night, King finally put his revolvers back into his holsters. Still, his expression was still serious when he turned his gaze at Ace. Enigmatically, the young sheriff approached the warrior of Suzaku.

"Ace." King stopped when he was already somewhere near the card-user. "I hope you know very well the consequences."

If any, King's stares got more absolute. Ace, who already comprehended what King implied, merely let out a sigh.

"My apologize, but I must ask you to leave this town."

Frankly, King was against saying that out loud, but some things were just necessary, albeit how much one disagreed to did it. Ace didn't show any hesitance. In fact, he almost took his step away from this town when something- No, someone was holding him from doing that. It happened amazingly fast that the two men weren't able to not to widen their eyes in surprise; a figure was standing between them.

It was Deuce.

"No." The young girl stated firmly, her arms were raised to her side to block King from approaching further. "Ace-san is not going anywhere. Not until tomorrow."

No, it was not only surprising them, it amazed them. Both King and Ace quickly wanted to voice something at her action, yet they couldn't. It was very unusual and unexpected, but the way Deuce stood between them pressured them on a whole new level. The aura around her just screamed absolute orders all the way. It was not warrior-esque, but it was graceful and breathtaking, which put a stop to the two men's objection.

Was this girl… that tender Deuce that both of them knew?

King lifted his neck, a bit defused at Deuce's unearthly determination. Unconsciously, King had to swallow a lump in his throat before he continued.

"Deuce." He spoke when he managed to overcame the slight tremble on his voice. "Laws must be upheld, and those who contravened must be convicted without any exception. Now, if you would-"

The Quicksilver rested his arm on the girl's shoulder to remove her arm from blocking his path to Ace politely, yet in return, the girl was the one who obviate his arm from her shoulder as she stood bravely in front of him. That, of course, put more surprise on the two men.

"I refuse, King-san." Her eyes were blazed with determination as she replied. "Ace-san is my patient, and part of my job is to protect my patient. Therefore, even if I have to ward you off every day until he's recovered, I will."

King was speechless, and it was not exaggerated. He tried to convince her again, but she was simply unfazed.

"Deuce, listen here-"

"No, King-san, I insist."

That was it. There was no winning for King's part. The long-haired man sighed dejectedly before his eyes darted to Ace, no sign of pressure was there anymore. "You heard her, Ace. You won."

Ace, who was as speechless as King just now, quickly snapped out of his reverie. He mustered a small nod in reply to the bigger man, along with a small, barely audible 'thanks'. Needless to say, Deuce's face lit up the most compared to the two men as she dropped her arms back to her side.

"Thank you, King-san!" She bowed at him politely, cheerfully as well. In regards, the older man was nodding in relief and was now walking past her, although he stopped momentarily to pat her shoulder comfortingly.

"I underestimated your strength, Deuce." He whispered at her warmly, his voice was not loud enough to reach Ace's ears. "I guess you were able to walk on your own feet without backups in the first place."

As faint blushes started to occupy her cheeks, Deuce giggled while she shook her head slightly, her tone was clearly happy. "Mmm. It is not possible without your help in the first place, King-san."

After that, King smiled at her and he resumed walking past her. Before long, he was side by side with Ace, who was keeping his mouth shut all along. Again, King stopped his pace a bit to give a message at Ace before he continued.

"I hope you'll recover soon, Ace." His warm voice once again rang. "Try not to put needless work to her."

"Aah." Ace easily responded in his usual, calm tone as the gunman seemed to be grateful of his answer.

No sooner, the sheriff was striding out of both Ace's and Deuce's sight. The female of the remaining slowly approached the male one, once again smiling brightly. However, Ace's expression was counteracting hers; it was small, but there was definitely a hint of guilt on his eyes.

"Sorry." The Caller said lowly. "I made you cry."

At first, Deuce was tilting her head confusedly when he suddenly apologized, but when the sentence was continued, she got the idea. The girl quickly raised a hand to brush him away politely by waving it to the side.

"Don't apologize, Ace-san." She smiled back at him weakly. "It's just… I am such a scaredy-cat, am I not? I couldn't do anything but panicking, if not crying, whenever there was someone fighting in front of me. If any, it was my fault for being so weak."

Actually, she got… a deeper reason for that, but she couldn't tell him. Sharing that could only mean more trouble for both of them. Again, she smiled as bright as she could at him, although the young man didn't seem to buy her reasoning, especially after how she stood between him and King just then.

Still, he would just keep that opinion inside of his tongue, instead he replied with something more tolerable.

"…You're too modest, Deuce." He put a hand to his hip in dissatisfactory. "You need to be more proud of your good side."

At Ace's indirect compliment, Deuce's face flushed again. She then laughed nervously at him. "I am not too fond of bragging about myself, Ace-san, assuming I actually have anything to brag."

This one, somehow, he could actually buy compared to the first one. His opinion of her being a bit too kind and naïve still stood strong.

"Well, shall we go now?" She spun around cheerfully; her head was lifted a bit so that she was staring at the starry sky. "I wouldn't want to stay in this cold air for too long if I were you, Ace-san."

Again, she loomed at him with that beatific smile of hers, which forced Ace to let out a sigh as he slowly surrendered to her endless enthusiasm. The two soon resumed their journey to her clinic.

Still, maybe Ace had judged Deuce too fast, indeed. Beneath her angelic aspect lied very strong personae that even he might admire at.

* * *

**You know what, guys? I cut the chapter into two just because I am fabulous.**

**I kid, about being the fabulous one that is. If I were to put it into one chapter, it will be around 13.000 words, and I don't think my body is ready for that. Don't worry, the next chapter will be up sooner than you guys expected.**

***Insert request for more reviews here***


	6. Verse V : Falling Heaven

**Type-0 fan- Thanks, 84 is probably one of my favorite pairing as well. Don't worry, they'll get their part later. Again.**

**Sekisual- ****エースとデュース早く付き合え****! ;D. ohgodidunnoifmykanjiisright. I'll assure you to be calm about it, my friend. She'll get _much_ more spotlight later on. And that is totally thanks to you~ **

**GroundZeroFirework- Unfortunately I have to ask you to be patient, because that was the only way to justify Ace's appearance in this story, since later on… It's going to be Machina's turn to shine. Later on, yeah.**

**Kunagiri- To answer about you and Seki's question about Kurasame… Well, why don't you guys guess who is my favorite character of this series? That's your subtle answer, brah.**

**MuddyWriter- Thanks for the positive feedback. To be honest, I love long and descriptive prose, hence why I _tried_ to write so many details inside my story and before I knew it, it was already ten pages or more.**

**That being said, if you guys prefers to read shorter chapters in the future, please do tell me like MuddyWriter did via review, PM, AIM, FB, plurk, or whatever. Because this story is not for myself, but for you guys as well and I want you guys to read this comfortably. Thanks in advance.**

**Guest- This one for you as well!**

**Jack Hargreave- Honorary clasp for you, no sarcasm. It seems that you managed to see through the subtle allusion that I put in the previous chapters, and I totally respect you for that, mate. That, or maybe others simply forgot to mention it. Try to guess what's coming for the next chapter from this chapter, then?**

**Anyway! Clever, and perhaps snarky disclaimer statement goes here.  
**

* * *

_Verse V : Falling Heaven_

* * *

As Ace opened his eyes on the bed, the sounds of bird chirpings were entering his ears. Lifting his neck from his current position, his body soon followed it as he positioned himself in a more comfortable position. Through the glass window on his side, he stared at the deep blue sky that had occasional patches of white clouds spreading across. Ace's eyes already welcomed the bright ray of sun from that layer of glass, although there was another one that entered the room from another direction as the door of his lodging room was opened widely.

"Good morning, Ace-san." Needless to say, that was Deuce with her trademark smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"Hopefully." He was in an unusually bright mood himself. His eyes soon darted to his own body as his hand started to rub his own stomach slowly. There was no pain on it anymore as he touched it. His body had recovered, and that was totally a good sign for him.

Noticing his action, the physician soon made her way to his side slowly to check on his current condition herself. Fortunate for both of them, she smiled again as if to confirm his rocketing health.

"I think you're perfectly okay now, Ace-san. Just make sure to be careful." She exclaimed the fact as she pulled her arms again to brush her skirt a bit to sit on the tip of her bed. "Are you hungry? Your breakfast's ready downstairs."

He stared at her for a moment, before he grabbed his coat that he hung on the bedstead. The man simply put on his suit for a moment as the girl waited for his response. Before long, she got what she waited for; his answer.

"To be honest, I don't think it's really necessary, Deuce." He let out a sigh that was a mixture of dejection and relief. "You've done many things for me already."

"Don't mind about this, Ace-san. It's a part of my job as well." As usual, she countered him with her fit of giggles. "Or do you want me to bring it here?"

The golden haired young adult paused his work on buttoning his coat to stare at her for a short second. She was smiling at him with her eyes closed brightly, and damn, that only made it harder to say no at her. Honestly, he would question how many people could actually resist Deuce's request more than ten seconds. Again, Ace could only sigh dejectedly as he buttoned his overcoat.

"Very well, I'll be downstairs soon."

Deuce cheerily nodded at that as she rose from her position before she turned around to leave the room, and Ace followed his healer slowly. They walked through the wooden floors until they reached the small stairway, which was made of wood as well. The duo carefully descended the stairs, and before long, they reached the house's kitchen. The place was small, but it was big enough to be able to keep a dining table for four people. On the spot were two trays of breakfasts, which consisted of two maslin breads and a bottle of milk on each one of them.

As Deuce made her way to one of the seat, Ace sneakily stole a glance at the clock on the far side of the room. This was still half past five in the morning, and Deuce had managed to cook _four_ breads? Ace was not the best of cook, but he knew that making a bread require at least an hour or so. Still, he didn't stop long enough on his track and he soon resumed his beeline into his seat or that would look too suspicious.

They both eat in silence until Ace's curiosity got the best of him.

"Can I ask you something?"

Deuce was drinking her milk when she noticed his question, and after a good sipping, she put the bottle down and smiled. "Of course, what is it?"

"What time did you get up this morning?" A second, and Ace realized that his question was too blunt, but he couldn't retract that already. "…Sorry if it's too personal."

She was unfazed by his question. She took things from the positive side, always. And this one was no exception.

"Don't worry, I had enough sleep if that's what worries you."

There was definitely something amazing with Deuce, she could solve the meaning behind his question so easily. Or was he the one that was too readable? He didn't want to overestimate himself, but he always did things secretly, and he was pretty sure he put on a calm expression as his mask whenever he could.

On the other hand, Deuce was silently observing Ace as well. Honestly, she only watched him for a single day, but she couldn't really relate him to 'Ace the Caller' from those rumors already. Sure, he was generally stoic and expressionless, but he showed many signs that he was capable of acting as a… normal human; he was able to chat with her and Jack friendlily, he was capable of getting amused from card games, he was even capable of joking about her relationship with him back on the tavern (this one made her grumble a little when she was reminded of it), and he was capable of showing anxiety and guilt over other people like he had shown just now and last night.

Ace-san… was definitely not a cold-blooded killer like people thought he would be. Of course, that was only a one-day judgment from her part, but he seemed pretty sincere about it and she felt she could trust him for that part of him.

Unconsciously, Deuce's green eyes met Ace's azure ones as they observed each other.

He blinked his eyes, and she blinked as well.

Another wordless pause, and they both blinked at each other again.

When they realized what they were doing with each other, their faces started to glow red in the same time.

"I-I am sorry!" Deuce rolled her eyes away shyly. "I-I didn't mean to stare…"

"N-No, my apologize to you as well-" Ace did the same as her. "T-That was impolite of me…"

Suddenly, finishing their breakfast felt so hard, as they were required to keep their head in a straight line to eat. Awkwardly, they grabbed a bite alternately, with the other purposely not looking at their par's face directly. Funny, because they didn't even had this all planned all along, but intuitively, their mind worked on the same brain wavelength.

This way, they purposely spent their time more than their usual duration of breakfast. But they just couldn't help this, there was just something… weird every time their eyes captured their par's face. No, it was not something negative, it was something very positive, yet it was hard to explain.

"A-anyway-"

Out of blue, Ace suddenly spoke while still trying to evade Deuce's eyes awkwardly, and Deuce's attention was his, albeit the girl was not less nervous than him.

"Y-Yes, Ace-san?"

The female fidgeted the hem of her skirt shyly, and in return, the male unconsciously tapped his foot nervously before he could open his mouth to answer. "H-How much do I owe you? I-I mean, I need to pay you for the treatment, correct?"

Ace quickly snaked his arm to his hip-bag to grab the Gils. Still, when he took the bag of coins and put it on the dining table for her, Deuce only pushed the bag back into his side.

"N-No, it's not necessary! I mean… You're all healthy and that's all I need."

She still didn't look at him directly, but Ace was now staring at her, his face expressed his disbelief. Not even Gils? Just how... weird this lady could be?

"No." Ace once again pushed the bag back at her. "You deserved this."

"I don't, Ace-san." Before he was able to push it to her side, her hand stopped him from doing so. Ace was a bit surprised by her sudden action, and thus, she managed to politely shove it back to his side. "I don't really need money as of now."

Ace sighed at Deuce's decision. Still, he once again pushed the bag to her side without saying anything. The physician, however, reciprocated it with her own way by pushing it back.

"Ace-san, villagers already gave me enough money for living. I can't possibly-"

Before she finished her words, her arm was pushed back by Ace's strength. She blinked her eyes no sooner as the money was now before her. The young man in silver coat raised a finger to point at the bag of Gils, before he tapped it to the wooden table, and then pointed at her.

"It's called common sense, Deuce." He stated in ordering tone. "It's yours."

One second passed, Deuce did nothing. Two seconds passed, she still did nothing. At the third second, however, she pouted in disagreement. In Ace's part, he only stared at her in disapproval.

This means _war_.

"No, Ace-san." She pushed it back. "It's yours."

"I beg to differ." He stopped her 'attack', and he soon overwhelmed her with his strength as he pressured her resistance. Still, Deuce wouldn't go down without a fight, she simply let her other hand helped her to win this fight.

"No. This money belongs to Ace-san."

She managed to push him back with her two arms, a bit. At least until Ace concentrated his power further again, and he pushed her back once again.

"With all due respect, Deuce—"

"It is pretty obvious that you need money more than me right now, Ace-san—"

Simply put, the two were both too stubborn. Ace pushed it, only to have Deuce pushed it back at him soon, or vice versa. Honestly, compared to how both of them acted last night out there, they seemed completely off this time. They looked so childish against each other, if not rather silly.

After two minutes of wordlessly using their power for something so unnecessary, their hands were shoved against each other with the equal strength and they stopped right around the center of the table. That was when their eyes captivated each others', although there were barely a sign of the weird tension on their face.

Deuce's pout was diminishing as her girly giggles took their places again on her mouth. Strangely, Ace was countering her fit of giggles with chuckles.

"Sorry." She smiled warmly at him. "I guess I need to respect you by taking them, don't I? Although this is rather…"

Ace let out a sigh of relaxation at her as the girl pulled the bag of coins to her side. It was about time both of them stopped pushing their opinion against each other.

"Then, how about this?" He said, and Deuce eyed him in return before he continued. "You may refuse some of it, but I'll give you something else in return?"

Deuce's round, green eyes couldn't hide her confusion as her patient took something from his sash. As Ace brought his hand back to the table, in his hands were cards. Ace smiled for a moment before he started to shuffle them. Deuce was almost curious of what he originally meant if not for the fact that she was deeply intrigued by how graceful and fast Ace shuffled the cards. At first, he shuffled them simply with the Hindu shuffling for a while, before he mixed it with overhand shuffling and riffle shuffling. The cards were cascaded for a bit after that, although Ace quickly repaired it in a blink of eye.

After he seemed to be satisfied with his randomizing, Ace spread them at Deuce, face-down. "Pick one, memorize it, but don't show it to me."

To be honest, Deuce didn't get what he implied, or what was his purpose, but there was a part of her that was already curious, if not excited, at this. The girl made a 'hmm' to think for a bit before she grabbed one to her side. As she looked at the card in her hand, it was Ace of Spades.

Deuce intuitively opened her mouth, but Ace quickly held his hand up.

"Don't say it as well."

The girl quickly clamped her 'Oops' that was almost out of her mouth. Ace was still smiling amusedly when he continued his game. Once again, he spread those cards between his hands. "Put it back again."

She put it back again somewhere between them as Ace pulled the card back and shuffled them again. This time, he simply shuffled them slowly with Hindu shuffling. Before long, he stopped his shuffling and thrust the full deck at Deuce.

"You want to try to shuffle them?" He politely asked.

That only added more question marks on her mind. Still, she nodded in agreement as she grabbed the cards from his hand.

"Oh, sure."

She kept questioning herself. What did Ace wanted to show her? Was he going to teach her about how to shuffle amazingly like him? If so, then what was the purpose of her grabbing a single card from him just then? Needless to say, as she pondered that, Deuce shuffled the cards, although it was definitely not as fast as the man in front of her. Well, that was reasonable, considering how Deuce rarely visited the tavern for a game or two.

After a while, she stopped the shuffling and she stared at Ace questioningly, in which the man only replied with an amused smile. Frankly, Deuce could hardly read that smile of him. Ace seemed to be a completely different person when he was associated with cards. She cocked her head to her side a bit. "What do I do with them next, Ace-san?"

Ace made a small shrug. Although his face was clearly still entertained, there was a bit of curiosity written there. "First thing first, why don't you show me the card you took before? What card?"

"That… Ace of Spades?" She inquisitively tried to confirm her question. In which, Ace only indicated the cards in her hand.

"Ace of Spades it is."

Deuce's confusion reached her peak of confusion. She was definitely puzzled, although Ace then asked her to turn the cards upside down and search the said card. Mustering a small nod, she then followed his lead and started to look for the Ace of Spades from the pile of cards slowly.

Her eyes gazed around ten cards already, and she couldn't find it yet.

Another fifteen cards, and the Ace of Spades was still nowhere to be seen.

Around the fortieth card, and she found it! …Or not, since it was Ace of Clubs instead of Spades.

Before she knew it, the long queue of cards was already bypassed her eyes, and the card was still yet to be found.

She blinked her eyes twice as she tilted her head bewilderedly again before she quickly returned to the first card. Maybe she overlooked it? This time, with more concentration, Deuce reiterated her search again.

That behavior of her triggered Ace to quirk his eyebrow, undoubtedly.

"What is wrong, Deuce?"

She ignored his question as her concentration was glued to the cards in her hand. It took her a while, but she soon finished rechecking for her card between those cards. And it was still the same, she couldn't find it.

"It isn't… here…" She stated, shocked. Her eyes were rounded in disbelief at the sight before her. The Caller only raised his eyebrow even higher at her as she muttered the next word blankly. "The card isn't here."

"Impossible, Deuce." Ace commented flatly. "You put it in."

"I-I did put it in!" She raised her voice a little in surprise, and she spread the cards on the table in reflexes. "B-But I can't find it…"

Ace gave her a questioning 'hmm' as he flung his arm forward to gather and grab the cards back to his side. He then sternly spread them in front of his face. Deuce nervously brought a hand to her mouth in confusion as Ace's eyes darted over the whole cards in his hand. After he was finished with that, Ace let out a dejected sigh as he put the card back into the table.

"It's not here, definitely." He eyed her calmly for a while, before it turned a bit judging. "Did you really put it inside?"

"I-I really did!"

"For sure?"

"I am sure! You saw it as well, Ace-san!"

She stubbornly countered him, but soon her expression turned a little guilty. She didn't know what Ace wanted to give her or what actually happened here, but one thing for sure that Deuce knew that she lost one of his card, and cards were Ace's main objects for his survival. Maybe she was a over-assuming this, but losing one piece of card might had the possibility to ruin Ace's way of living.

Or so she thought. Ace himself let out a sigh again, although his face was not as down as before. If any, his emotion looked like he wanted to reassure her that everything was fine.

"That's that, I guess." The blonde exclaimed. "Maybe there's some error on my part as well."

"I-I am terribly sorry, Ace-san…"

Again, he let out a sight, this time was to sign his reliefs. "Anyway." He pointed at the bag of the money in Deuce's side. "I hope that's enough for you."

Deuce guiltily looked at Ace, who smiled at her, before she replied with a weak one of her own.

"Thank you very much." The girl expressed as her arm was reaching the bag of money.

And as soon as she touched it, Deuce quickly noticed something was off. This thing was supposed to hold only coins, right? Then why did she feel something… thin? It was as if she was touching a…

Hurriedly, Deuce opened the brown colored pouch, only to find a piece of a paper inside of it; a card, the Ace of Spades. As she stared at it, she couldn't help but letting shock colored her face. Deuce blinked her eyes repetitively for a moment, before the girl turned her attention at the young man who sat in front of her. The said man didn't seem to be surprised even for a second, though. If any, Ace had a little smile tugging his lips.

"Oh." Ace plainly said. "So it was there all along."

Granted, Deuce's stomach was fluttering with surprises at this, but their amounts weren't as big as the amusements as well as excitements there. Unconsciously, she beamed up from her seat, her hyped eyes were alternating between the pouch and Ace.

So this was what he meant?

"What!? How!?" She rose from her seat as she eyed Ace like a newborn baby, her upper body was almost flung at him excitedly. "How did you do that, Ace-san!? Since when did you put the card inside?"

Subliminally, Ace jerked his head aback at her sudden attitude. Sure, he figured that Deuce would have not seen this kind of trick before and she would be surprised, but Ace definitely didn't expect her to… light up like this. The young man was still able to shrug her off politely and calmly, however.

"Hold on a minute." Ace politely pushed her shoulders away so that she would return to her seat. "I did nothing at all."

"No way!" Deuce returned to her seat already, but she was still thrilled nonetheless. The girl raised a finger to point at the boy. "You must have done something!"

"I didn't, Deuce." Ace literally shrugged at his healer's claim.

"You did, Ace-san." Deuce protested back.

"I didn't."

"You did."

"I didn't."

"You did."

"I didn't even touch the pouch, Deuce." Ace responded bluntly, his chin soon resting on his hand. "Or you have any logical explanation for that?"

That somehow hit the spot. Deuce was visibly confused of what she should say next when the words aired through her ears. The cute physician rolled her eyes to think for a moment before she looked at Ace again.

"But I know you did!"

Unnecessary to be said, Ace didn't buy her stubbornness, especially since she put no reasoning behind it. "How so?"

"Umm…" Deuce nervously pondered for another ten seconds before she flicked her fingers, her face beaming again. "Because you smil-No, you grinned? You planned this all along, to see my response?"

At Deuce's exclamation, Ace's eyebrows were raised. Although she put that adorable surprised and shocked façade back then, she still managed to see it? Admirable. The silver coated man sighed in relaxation again and he couldn't push his smile back. Well, she wasn't exactly wrong as well, especially on the last sentence.

"Maybe." His smile was getting more obvious. "Or maybe not."

She was never the best at comprehending figure of speech or sarcasm, but Deuce could tell this one for sure; Ace was implying that she was correct.

"How did you do that, Ace-san?" Deuce tilted her head curiously. Her tone was not as excited as before, she spoke in her usual lovely tone. Ace himself only replied her with a confident smile.

"That's a secret." His smile was soon accompanied by a fit of chuckles.

That answer was not exactly her favorite, and Deuce made a small pout at him. "Then do it again."

"I refuse."

"Ace-san!"

Ace's quick answer only made her pout harder, and Ace, who realized that, only added another host of chuckles on his words.

And thus, their breakfast was filled with laughs and peacefulness again.

…

"Are you really sure I can keep it?"

Several more minutes passed and the healer along with her patient had finished their morning dose of food. It was due time for Ace to embark on his mission again, and Deuce simply let him go. While she had an objection about what might Ace do in the future, she didn't say it out loud, and for she acknowledged that he was (and probably still is) a man who practically married to his job. Well, at least that was what she could tell from the reflection of the deep blue orbs in Ace's eyes.

"I can't really see why you couldn't." Ace descended from the wooden porch steps carefully with Deuce trailing not far behind him. The man then languidly turned his head back to stare at her. "Losing a single card won't put an impact on my performance."

That was the brunette's turn to let a sigh of dejection. If he stated it with that confidence, she didn't have any other choice but to trust him. She fluidly put the Ace of Spades that she kept holding into her robe's pocket. When the card was resting peacefully inside of it, the girl then flashed him a smile again.

"I'll hope for the best for you, Ace-san." She held her hands together in front of her chest, her head was canted a little to her side. "Please be more careful."

"Right back at you, Deuce." He smiled at her before he bowed his golden mane at her, which made the girl giggle a little at his politeness. "I hope we can meet again in the future. In different circumstances, that is."

"Mmm." Deuce gladly accepted his indirect wish. "I'll be looking forward to that day."

With that, Ace whirled on his heels to leave the place to resume his undercover mission as Deuce turned on hers to return to her hut.

Yet, the world's wheel of fate turned against the current for both of them respectively. Due to a certain figure's voice that distracted their original plan. As soon as the voice was grasped with their hearings, Ace and Deuce quickly stopped their pace and their attentions were diverted at the same direction.

"Hey, you!"

It was Cater, who was covered in bruises and cuts, and she soon bent her body in exhaustion. Of course, this triggered Deuce's gasp as she rushed to her side. Ace's reaction was much calmer than Deuce's, but he was still surprised. Frankly, it wasn't too hard to read the curiosity, if not anxiety, from Ace's expression when he approached the informant.

"Oh sheesh!" Cater complained in frustration. "What happened to 'I'll stay in the woods', Ace!? I had to search the whole Korushi Woods for you!"

After that, Cater let out a notable exhausted breath as she looked down tiredly. Deuce quickly grabbed Cater's arms so that she wouldn't fall to the ground. On the other hand, while Ace undoubtedly felt guilty for making Cater did heavy jobs finding him, his expression was as cool as ever as he tapped Cater's shoulder for assurance.

"Sorry." The silver-coated assassin spoke. "But something unexpected happened and I suffered from wounds."

The blond man was about to ask why Cater was here, but he was quickly reminded of it; Cater was to find the famous physician to cure King Khalia's illness. And speaking of which…

"She's the one, Cater." He caressed the wounded informant's shoulder reassuringly. He then indicated Deuce with his finger, in which the said girl only responded by giving him a look of curiosity. Still, the young healer turned her attention to Cater again, she was the one that need an immediate treatment right now. Sure, it might not seem too deep, but there was always the chance of infection from those open wounds.

Surprisingly, her response was not what both Deuce and Ace had anticipated. The auburn haired girl put her hand on Deuce's wrist limply.

"There's… no need for it anymore." She opened her mouth bitterly. Certainly, Deuce gave her an 'Eh?' while Ace gave her a 'What?' in return.

Cater lifted her upper spine again to look at the two for a bit, before her gaze was locked to Ace. Even for Ace, the depth of her eyes was unbelievably steep. It was unexplainable at best, it was like she just ran through hell.

"Ace…"

When her next words echoed, that was when Ace was certain that he was not too wrong from his initial guess.

"…His Majesty is dead."

* * *

**Death count: 1. Nope, I didn't count Izana's, or Machina's parents, or others from past. Problem? Our great headmaster is dead.**

**For Ace's to be able to do card trick is a little headcanon of me that was based off his expertise in cards. This is probably the last chapter of Ace's centric. We're going to move others' centric soon. Next chapter will be something completely different, and by that I mean _completely_.**

**Unfortunately, I have to give a heads up that I won't be able to update this story as fast as this week due to new semester of my college life that would start by the next Monday. Indefinite slowatus, granted, but don't worry! I'll still talk with you cool peeps online, and of course, update this story as fast as possible.**

**That's all for this chapter, RIVIU BATTON me guys.**


	7. Chorus : Withering Moon

**I'll reply to reviewers on the next chapter. Have something very different first. Also, Kunagiri is my bro, sekisual is my waifu, and Regoli is my god. The first two being two internet friends that kept cheering on me, while the latter… illustrated this story into amazing pictures ;w;. MUCH THANKS TO THE THREE OF YOU. Go check Regoli's tumblr for the amazing artworks!**

**Final Fantasy Type-0 characters, plots, etcetera etcetera belongs to Square Enix.**

* * *

_Chorus : Withering Moon_

* * *

At the very least, he had arrived.

Trey jumped from the firm branch of a tree and he gracefully landed on the grassland. The golden haired marksman brushed the dust of his pants a moment before he raised his neck to stare at the sight just before him. In front of the archer was the biggest town of Oriense, the Capital of Milites of Byakko Empire, which coincidentally where he resided at.

He allowed his mouth to release a sigh before he made his stride through the gigantic gate. With the pace that only royal could have, the young sniper simply waved dismissively at the gate's guardians, who saluted his coming. As soon as he was out of the shady gate, he was presented with the scenery that he had yet to see this week.

To his right was the cleanest of a town, everything about them screamed money and fame and almost every building was as shiny as an aurora. To his left, however was something that couldn't even be compared. As Trey let his eyes to glance to his left, he could only scan nothing but trashes, both literally and not. To put it in a better wording, compared to the noble quarter on the right, the one to his left was a poorly managed ghetto.

And that disgusted him very much that such racism existed here. He would give the poor people something out of obligation, certainly, but not before he left for his own home first to grab what they deserved. Trey then turned on his heel elegantly to his right, where his residence lies.

It didn't take him longer than five minutes of walking to arrive at the well-developed house. To be quite frank, his house was rather eye-catchy, due to how big and amazingly-maintained the place was. The double oak door was very stylish, if not elegant, as well. The young man proceeded to enter his house after he knocked the door politely and he was responded with a voice from the inside.

As soon as he was inside, two female servants quickly bowed and greeted him, from both of his right side and left side respectively.

"Welcome home, young master." The two young servants stated at the same time, and Trey raised a hand dismissively at them, along with a small smile.

"Good day to you two as well." He politely replied while sliding down the quiver on his back as the one of the servants grabbed it before it fell to the floor. As the servant with the quiver walked away to put the quiver back to his room, Trey let the other servant took the bow from his side. However, before she could walk to put it to the rightful place, Trey asked.

"Jeanne," he addressed his servant. "Any news from my father?"

Trey, born as Yuuichi, was half Byakko and half Suzaku. His father was an honorable scholar from the Research Institute of City of Togua, and his mother was a prodigy from the small town of Isuka, in which the two met at the former's place when the latter decided to took her study to the higher level. They were on a research study on the countryside right now, however. And that could only mean that they trusted Trey's judgment to keep their household strong.

Mixed from those two, their only son possessed incredible tier of knowledge and diligence, along with an amazing talent of archery that the two didn't possess. And here he was, the only one who fit the title Hraesvelgr, the one being who summoned soothing winds wherever he sat.

"No, young master." The servant named Jeanne shook her head bitterly. Trey mouthed a blank 'Oh' as he indicated her to continue her work. She bowed back at him before she walked to put the bow to his room, and Trey found his seat on the sofa on the living room. He didn't sit before he grabbed a book from the tall bookshelf on the side, of course.

No matter how busy he was, there would always be an open spot in his schedule to read a book. Information and knowledge were something that Yuuichi always had a thirst for, and he would bet that that trait of him was something that he wouldn't throw away forever.

Trey took a good five minutes to absorb all the entertainment, along with the information from the thick book. Granted, leaving the book unfinished was such a waste, but for now, he had another objective to accomplish. The young nobleman simply closed the book before he headed to the shelf to put it back.

"Anyone of you has seen Cinque around?" He asked aloud as soon as he was done putting the book, hoping one of his servants had seen the said girl. Fortunately, his question wasn't left unheard by one of them.

"Sir Naghi picked her up earlier today, my master." She paused as another servant joined. "They've gone playing stoolball."

At the mention of 'Naghi', Trey's eyebrow was quirked a bit and a small smirk formed on his lips. Yet, that was enough for his confirmation. Still dressing in his hunting outfit, the young sharpshooter took a bag of fruits from the dining table before he left his enormous house.

The cobblestones of the main city were always one thing that Trey never got used to. Whenever he stepped on them, his feet would produce a slight unnecessary sound. Well, perhaps his boots played a prominent role at this as well, due to the unmatched materials against the stony road.

Despite that, Trey eloquently walked through his way to the stoolball field on the southeastern part of the noble quarter of the city while politely waving and greeting everyone he passed. Sure, he always needed a good chat or two and he loved to do so, yet Trey did not initiate it. He had an unofficial, unassigned job to pay a visit to those of lower ranks. Of course, he never badmouthed them that way as well.

The stoolball field itself was covered with strong fences that were high enough to not to let the ball flew out. As soon as Trey sighted a part of the steel fences, the guy was mentally glad for a reason that was not apparent enough. The field was to his left so when Trey touched the fences, he shifted his direction ninety degrees to his left.

And that was when his handsome face was suddenly welcomed by a ball out of nowhere.

Generally, he had no trouble detecting attacks, but this was a normal softball without any sign of killing intention, or even hurting intention, not some kind of arrows or bullets. That still hurt, of course.

Trey massaged the bridge of his nose, the exact spot where the ball hit him, as a shorter figure approached him hurriedly. Before him now was a girl that was younger than him, appearance-wise. What made her stood out compared to the others was without doubt her unique maid clothes, in which its skirt was visibly shorter compared to the normal ones along with the detached, frilly sleeves around her arms. Her regally-maintained pigtailed hair stood out as well, of course.

"Te-hehe~" the girl sheepishly scratched her head, no sign of regret or sort written on her face though. "Sowwy~"

…Also a girl that Trey could easily recognize solely by her tone. The girl was his personal maid, Cinque. And the bad thing was, she didn't seem to realize that that was her master that she had just hit with a ball.

"Cinque…" Trey sighed as he rubbed his nose in slight pain. "It is nice to see that you are as high-spirited as always."

As if he had pulled the right trigger, Cinque snapped out of her trance as she cocked her head confusedly. She narrowed her eyes at the taller male for a swift moment before they widened again. However, she still didn't let out any sign of sorry, the girl only smiled like a cat.

"Master~!"

Again, the girl captured his surprise by suddenly jumping on him, literally. Luckily, Trey reacted just in time. The moment the archer noticed her action, he shifted his position a bit so that the girl didn't smack his body silly, and instead, she fell right into his arms.

"When did Master Trey come back?" Cinque rubbed her cheek against his' muscular chest. "Why was Cinque not informed?"

Trey merely let out a sigh of relief as he patted the girl's head tenderly. She never changed, even since their first encounter.

OOO

_About six years ago, after the inner rebellion of the Kunagiri household had subsided, people were feeling a bit safer to move in to the capital. Needless to say, Frederick Ashdown along with his wife Chie and his sole son Yuuichi decided to follow the trend. Without much difficulty, they could successfully afford one of the bigger houses, as well as grabbing a high prestige among the many people of the city, due to Frederick's lineage. No sooner, they were already famous for their wisdoms._

_One afternoon, Yuuichi, who was already dubbed as Trey at that time, was walking by himself to the town's library. The fresh teenager only brought little money at that time due to that purpose, around 1.000 gils (although that was quite a number to some classes in the societies). Honestly, to be quite logical, you didn't even need any money to visit a public library. Still, should anything unexpected came across him, Trey wouldn't stay unprepared._

_The wheel of fate turned at that exact moment, and it tied the red string between Trey's fingers and Cinque's._

_Just before he reached the heaven of books, there was something disgusting that flashed before him. Quickly, he pierced a look at the right corner, where a dark, dirty alley was located. Furthermore, inappropriate screams could be heard as an addendum to that as well. Undoubtedly, the young blond took a small detour to the side to straighten things out._

"_HAAAAH!"_

_The loud cry of a young girl shocked Trey to a degree when he peeked in. He originally thought that there was going to be some inappropriate sexual action here, yet turned out that his guess was not correct. Instead of Trey's expectation of bunch of men assaulting a single woman, he was presented with a woman- No, **a girl** was lifting a man that was about twice bigger than herself above her head._

"_Eeiiiii-" the girl took a deep breath while she positioned her feet. "-YAAAAAAH!"_

_After that, she easily threw the big man to the side like a missile, and the said man crashed the wall loudly. As the man groaned in pain, the girl huffed for oxygen as she turned to the group of men that surrounded her. Another man rushed at her, but she managed to grab his arm just in time with her small hands, and then… Once again lifted the man up before harshly slammed him to the hard surface of the cobblestone._

_Trey was amazed. The girl's strength was not that of a normal human, yet she possessed a small figure that looked so slender and delicate. As he gazed at her face deeper, even if she was in her troubled state, her cuteness was still very noticeable. A human with those graces… really existed? The young male couldn't help but left his mouth agape at the panorama in front of him._

_Sadly, she was caught by her surprise as the first man that she had thrown suddenly extended his burly arms to seize her right ankle. The brunette gasped at the sudden occurrence in surprise. She quickly tried to kick him off, but that way, she couldn't notice two men were charging at her. The next thing that happened was the girl was pinned down by three men._

"_You little-!" One of the men backhanded her powerfully that the impact left a loud sound, although her pained moan wasn't less loud as well._

_While she was intoxicated with the pain on her face, two men brought her wrists together forcefully as the third guy entered the fray with a rope in his hand. The girl wriggled her legs frantically._

"_NO! LET GO-!"_

"_Shut up, wench! You'll work like you were assigned to!"_

_Another hard backhand from the same guy, and her face was now smacked to the other direction. Not too long after that, they had managed to lock her hands' movement by tying her hands together. The only forms of resistance that she had now were only crying, screaming for help and helplessly struggled with her legs._

"_AAAH-! NO! H-HELP!"_

_Her loud plea was a song to their ears and they simply grinned in satisfaction as they watched her struggle fruitlessly. Whether it was for vengeance or simply to satisfy his lust, one of them reached the collar of her cheap tunic and cruelly ripped it off. As her torso was now uncovered, the girl screamed on the top of her lung in panic, although she wasn't able to complete it due to a hand that was clamping her mouth._

_The girl's tears were getting more flooded at her current situation, especially when all of those guys were now looking at her with the same lust as the first man. Resigned, the girl closed her eyes in shame in expectation of those lecherous bastards violated her immorally._

_Yet, her expectation never happened. Instead, her plea was granted. A small stone was suddenly blasted from the entrance of the alley and it fiercely hit the man who was holding her mouth clamped on his head. With a cry that resembled a beast, the man's temple was now bleeding on the spot. Obviously, this captured everyone's surprises, even the girl's._

_Every pair of eyes darted to the side only to witness Trey was walking slowly toward them while juggling pieces of small rocks on his hand._

_The young blond motioned his arm aside, and before anyone could even tell, another piece of rock hit another man. Trey simply walked expressionlessly as his enemies' faces were colored with shocks and panics. Unexpectedly though, he stopped for a brief moment when he was still rather distant from them. The nobleman watched as they gulped in fear and he couldn't hold his smirk._

_He stepped further in once, they stepped back once._

_Trey's smirk got a little wider as he stepped in again, and they responded by stepping back once._

_Honestly, he just needed to approach them once more and he could tell that they would already run with their tails between their legs. However, Trey would always be the most aristocrat of a man, and there was always a way to settle things more diplomatically. He slipped his free arm to the money pouch on his side to grab some of his Gils._

"_Hand her to me," he threatened them in venomous tone, and he indicated what was in his other hand. "In exchange for these coins."_

_The sex traders couldn't move, unfortunately. They were struck in fear by Trey's capability. The said young man only juggled the rocks in his hand once before he clenched them tightly._

"_Without further ado."_

_Their yelps beat into one yelp as Trey's absolute command rang in their ears. He almost passed the money to them, but they were already dashing away from the place as soon as possible in fear. He sternly watched as their figure grew more distant before he pocketed the money back. With the same slow pace, Trey walked to the girl's side, although his pace was definitely not as enigmatic as before. _

"_Are you alright, my fair lady?" He kneeled down to her level and he untied her out of her bondage. "Forgive me for not coming to your aid faster. You are unhurt, are you not?"_

_That was more of a rhetorical question, but Trey couldn't bring himself in a different manner. Surprisingly, the girl, who was now sitting down and covered her body by bringing the remnant of her tunic over her chest, tilted her head confusedly. Trey's comforting smile was unfaltering, and he kept waiting for her to respond back at him. _

_After a while, a subtle blush appeared on her cheek as she bitterly opened her mouth to speak._

"_W-What can I-I do for you, m-master?" _

_Her sentence was stammering, and Trey couldn't tell exactly why. Still, he guessed that this was due to her still fear-stricken after the attempted rape just now. Another wild guess from him that that she was… a sex slave, from her way of addressing him. And obviously, against her will._

"_You do not need to address me with such prefix nor do anything for me, my dear." He tried to reassure her by patting her shoulder. "You are alright, on the other hand?"_

_Another rhetorical statement from him, but she seemed to buy it by nodding slowly at him. He slowly offered her his hand to take, and after a while, she took it with one hand while her other hand was still covering her chest._

_While Trey gently led her to her feet, he couldn't help but mesmerized by the flow of her brown hair that waved through the air smoothly. It was very unnatural, yet very beautiful. To make things better, her round and cute face only added more points to her lovely appearance. He watched many women, even those of noble ranks, but never once he found someone as breathtaking as her. She was like a piece of gold in the middle of the pool of mud._

_As soon as both of them were on their feet, Trey held her hand a bit higher so that it was almost touching his face._

"_My name is Yuuichi of Ashdown, or some addressed me as Trey." He slowly caressed her hand in his hand. "If I may know, what is yours?"_

_She blinked at his action. She was clearly oblivious to his action and Trey couldn't help but sympathized the girl, along with what kind of life that she had gone through. Her eyes reflected almost nothing but the emptiness of her life. She was the epitome of a dying flower right now, and he would definitely not going to let that happen. _

_As the young nobleman tried to analyze her wordlessly, the girl nervously parted her lips away, capturing Trey's attention once more.  
_

"_A-Aki…"_

_Trey flashed the girl his smile again. _

"_Aki… Such a beautiful name." He mused out of his sweet-talk. "In ancient language, it means 'bright', 'autumn' or 'sparkle', or even…" He paused a bit and he kissed her hand softly. "'Second hope'."_

_Aki blushed lightly as she stared at the taller man's action. "Second… hope?"_

"_That is correct." He nodded. "That is you, my dear. You might had gone through the realm of hell once, but after this… You shall be the beacon of hope, Aki."_

_She blinked twice before something very graceful was presented on Trey's eyes. _

_Aki smiled._

_If Yuuichi's heart didn't skip a beat before, it certainly was skipping right now. Her gloomy façade was suddenly filled with something as bright as a sun, very befitting of her name: A sweet and beautiful smile, yet somewhat childish as well. It was his turn to let the heat enveloped his face. Unconsciously, he needed to adjust his attention elsewhere so that Aki wouldn't see his blushing face._

"_Master Trey!"_

_That snapped him out of his reverie, and he quickly quirked an eyebrow at her due to her usage of the honorable prefix. She intertwined her hands together sweetly as another faint blush appeared on her face when she smiled._

"_Aki… likes Master Trey!"_

…

_That same day, Trey had brought her to his home. At first, Trey figured that he should introduce her to his family as a friend, but due to the social class issues that might bring his family down, he ended up taking her as his servant. While personally he was still against it, that was the only bright spot that wouldn't put any more stress on every side._

_Being that way, her role and room was settled soon. She was officially taken as Yuuichi's personal maid, with her room that was not too far from her master's. He had personally asked her to address him with prefix whenever they were in his mansion, or at the very least, whenever there was a person aside of themselves. Luckily, she agreed to him wholeheartedly._

_That night, Trey entered Aki's room to check on how she adapted to her current environment. The nobleman knocked the door politely before he peered inside of the chamber. When he did, however, he was very amazed by how much she had changed._

_As soon as he was able to look at her, she turned on him with smile all over her face. Her once-messy hair was now tied up beautifully in a long braid, her once-dirty face was now filled with bright light of her own, and her once-raggy clothes were now switched with a set of custom maid uniform. _

_The once dying flower was now blooming again._

"_Master~!" She chimed happily as she approached her stunned master, and she then spun with her fingers grabbing the hem of her frilly skirt, as if she was trying to show him her current outfit. "How does Aki look?"_

_Her only response was his astonished face. That lasted for a while, before he purposely coughed to hide his embarrassment._

"_That fits you." He stated with mild blush across his face. "A perfect choice of clothing."_

_The girl smiled at him for a moment before she spun again in delight. It was pretty clear even for a blind man that she was enjoying her uniform. Undoubtedly, she looked pretty childish right now._

_It was hard for him to not to smile at the panorama before him._

_The new maid was busy humming and presumably dancing around blissfully as her master sighed in relief as he found his way to the only bed of the room. Soon, the young aristocrat bent down to sit down on the comfortable surface. His face turned rather depressed as he said his next word._

"_It pains me that I need to ask this question straight out at you, Aki." He paused, steepled his fingers together just in front of his lips. "Regardless, I require you to tell me about your past further. Father and mother would not want possible issues in the future."_

_The girl in question stopped right on her spot as the question delved in her. A remorseful sigh escaped her pink lips just after she was done biting her lips slightly. She turned on her new mary jane shoes to met his stare with hers. Before she was able to say a word, though, he interrupted her._

"_This won't be spread into the ears of others." He calmly reassured her. "I'm going to adjust the story as much as necessary."_

_Thanks to that, Aki slowly closed her lips again. Yet this time, the hint of sadness on her face was depleted already. Instead, there was a smile by her face. The girl in maid clothing strode to Trey's side before she took her seat right beside him._

_While the hint of sadness on her emotion couldn't get any bigger, there was still a very thin sign of hurt on her babyface, which didn't went unnoticed by her master's eyes. She took a moment before she could muster her phrases._

"_Aki… can't remember clearly." She expressed ruefully. "No, Aki mean… Aki remembers papa's and mama's face, but…"_

_Trey waited for her patiently as he took note of Aki's way of addressing her parents. Personally for him, it seemed that she was very attached to her parents._

"…_But Aki can't remember where exactly Aki lived…" Her words were being suppressed by the remorse in her tone. "Aki remembered… Fires… And then papa and mama told Aki to hide…"_

_Yuuichi's eyes turned very round at her exclamation. Sure, there was no real proof to his unspoken guess about what had happened to her, but if he were going to play things logically, her family was one of the many victims of the infamous Aulstyne Rebellion incident. _

"_Aki couldn't… hide forever. Aki was so scared at that moment." Her quiet sob interrupted his train of thought. "A-Aki tried to escape, but somebody g-grabbed Aki…"_

_Her tears were getting more and more torrential, and the only countermeasure that she could do at that time was wiping her bloodshot eyes with the frilly black sleeves of her clothes. Trey himself could barely keep up with her tragic story._

"_A-Aki was t-thrown into a d-dark room…" She chocked on her words in desperation as her tears burst before her eyes. The girl could only cover her face with her hands in trauma, especially at her incoming words._

"_T-They—" A painful sob. "A-A-Aki…" Another pained sob. "R-rape—"_

_That was the last straw._

_Reflexively, Trey shifted his body to his side a bit and he pulled the girl into a comforting embrace. Aki momentarily stopped her sobbing at the impact and gasped. Before long, her head had rested on his chest, and he gracefully allowed her to drench his shirt with her tears._

"_Forget all of that, Aki." He maturely brushed her silky hair with his hand, patting it lightly. "Just forget all of it."_

_Still in his arms, she unconsciously mustered a small nod at his wish while her mind was busy venting all of her trauma in the form of tears. Wisely, her master attempted another pat on her hair, before he trailed his hand through her long braided ponytail._

"_Thus, as of today," he added when her cries got a little more stable. "I am stripping you out of your original name. This is my first order for you."_

_Although there was still a sob or two, the former slave pulled her head back to stare at his face, a slight confusion was written on her face. Before she was able to say anything, he continued._

"_Aki is a great name, indeed. And now we're going to make a good use of its meaning for you." He paused for a bit. "The second hope is coming already, my dear. You can't go on forward if you keep looking back."_

_She pulled her right arm from his chest to wipe the tears on her eyes first before she tilted her head._

"_Then, my new name is…?"_

_At that, the young nobleman seemed to be a little thoughtful for a moment, especially since he put a hand over his mouth and he rolled his eyes aside to ponder. This time it was his new maid's turn to apply her patience in the act. _

_After a moment that seemed to be forever, Trey lifted his head a bit and closed his eyes as a satisfied smile colored his lips. No sooner, he put his face down a bit so that the pair's eyes met with each other. There was no better new name for her but this one; the date of today, where she would be reborn as a brand new character._

"_Cinque." He smiled as brightest as he could. "From today onward, you shall be addressed as Cinque."_

OOO

"So~! So~!" Cinque chimed happily. "When will Master Trey go play again? Can Cinque come, too?"

Of course, the 'play' that Cinque had said was not to be taken literally. It had been some sort of codename between the handsome master and his cute maid whenever there was something that required the Hraesvelgr's involvement, usually something that would show the world about his expertise in archery. The blond twitched the corner of his lips into a small smile.

"But of course, Cinque." Once again, he patted her head. "However, I need you to regard yourself with another duty first."

The smaller girl cocked her head in questioning manner and Trey indicated the bag on his side. Surprisingly, a voice that belonged to another person altogether entered their conversation suddenly.

"Hey! What's up, Hraesvelgr?"

From their side, a blond male with a red bandana emerged while juggling a ball in his right hand. As soon as the said man was close enough, Trey politely pushed Cinque away from his side to apply a small bowing, if not a saluting.

"Sir Naghi. You seem well."

The man in red bandana let out a small laugh at that. "Never been better. How are you doing yourself?"

"Disregarding some things, I am in my best state yet." Trey replied casually. "Been enjoying a good game of stoolball, you two?"

The 'two' that Trey indicated gave him their grins. Of course, they were Cinque and Naghi. The male out of two gave the archer a thumbs-up.

"We sure did, right!?" He boasted along as he turned his grin a little at the girl beside him. To that, the girl followed with a thumbs-up of her own as well.

"Umu!"

He… could only sigh in relief at the duo's enthusiasm. If there was _anything_ from Naghi that Trey respected, it was this trait of him.

"Unfortunately, I have to ask Cinque to refrain herself from more games at this point." The young sharpshooter claimed as he gave the bag to his maid. He turned his attention at her as well. "Cinque, just like usual."

At his statement, Cinque's face suddenly turned very delighted. The bat in her hand was thrown away in exchange of the bag that she took happily.

The said bat, however, hit Naghi unceremoniously on his head. While Cinque didn't seem to notice it, Trey sweat-dropped at the scene. Naghi crouched down in pain and he was giving a muffled 'Ouch' or two. The maid, apparently, had already dashed away while humming childishly when Trey could only sympathize with Naghi's head.

When her slender figure had been out of the two's visions, the one with the bandana on his head rose to his legs again.

"Man, she's always like that." He whined while nonchalantly rubbing his temple in pain. In return, Trey let out a dry chuckle at that.

"We're talking about Cinque here." He commented. "Else, she's someone else."

"True, true."

Both men chuckled at the same time. After a moment, the laughter died down and Naghi shrugged a bit.

"So, how was it?"

Trey arched his eyebrow at the other man's question for a second, before he comprehended what he's getting at: His mission to open a path to Suzaku region. Sadly, the only thing that he got from that was the deaths of his subordinates and…

"Not quite as planned, I'm afraid." He remarked back, a mixture of guilt and anger was clear on his tone. Subconsciously, his eyes twitched as an image of a person in silver coat flashed in his mind. The one who had killed his subordinates, moreover without showing any expression while he did so. Furthermore, he was able to escape from his grasp, which put more stress on his already-mixed emotion.

Still, his lip-biting was soon stopped by a small smirk that was now rising by his lips.

"Hence why I am going to head out again as soon as possible."

For a second there, Naghi was surprised by the looks on Trey's face. Just now, he was really far from the Trey that he always knew. Those eyes were the eyes of an eagle that had found its' prey. Just a simply gaze from his blue eyes, and his enigmatic aura would soon envelope his enemy. Trey was very poisonous, to put it at the very least.

"If you'll excuse me, Sir Naghi. I have some more business I need to attend."

As Trey bowed his head again and made his way back out of the field, Naghi replied with a small nod as he watched the archer stepped out of the area. Inwardly, the Byakko's 'idol' gulped. Whoever had managed to interest Trey that much would fall soon.

…

Trey reached for his green sleeveless coat from the clothes hanger. Extending his arms, he soon let them to slide inside the coat and soon, he was armored with that long coat of his.

He had come back from the outer part of Byakko region, and soon he would head back there. He knew that the Caller would probably already back into his own country since King of the Quicksilver was there, and Trey acknowledged King's high sense of morality and justice.

However, if they were going to talk about justice, he always had a different perspective about them. Everyone knew that Cid was, and is always a tyrant, even a blind man could tell that. The amount of people that would disagree with him was uncountable, that was for sure. Hell, even Trey himself might be one of them.

Yet, from that barbaric way, what would they get? They were basically going to repeat what Cid had done to them. Cid might only be a single person, but his soldiers were undoubtedly numerous. Thus, to pull such an attempt would only lead them to an occurrence called as genocide. History would only repeat themselves if one man pushed their own ideal with mere forces.

That was exactly why he was always trying to change the place slowly. He was never afraid of putting some action into his words, alright, but if his words could convince everyone else to stop this fight without shedding more bloods? That was definitely the best choice of all. Of course, the seed that he had planted around the place should bloom soon. Trey couldn't suppress an exasperated sigh as he let his strategy slept inside his brain.

Out of sudden, though, the door of his room was knocked. The knocking was somehow polite, yet somewhat rude as well. And that could only mean Cinque.

"Master~? Master~? Cinque's ready~"

The sniper blinked his eyes once before a soft chuckle was now covering his words. Well, he was probably worrying things too much. Maybe he could take an example or two from Cinque's innocence. He could live with less killing, really.

As he tightened the three-fingered gloves, he walked to the door to open it. It went without saying that his maid was waiting for him with a mace on her side. Honestly, that was a good match; someone as strong as Cinque was equipped with a mace. The girl could even lift it with one hand should it was necessary for her, before resting it on her shoulder.

Like what she was doing right now. With more grin, of course.

"We're going to go now~?" The girl asked in her unique accent. Trey replied at her with a gentle smile and a small nod.

"We should."

He simply scooped the bow and arrows from the side into his shoulder. Of course, before anything else, he needed to go there, and despite how much things were at odd against the tyrant, Trey was always the chivalrous man.

"To the castle."

Trey soon walked out from his house, fully expecting Cinque to follow him. The path he was going to step on would probably be tainted with reds soon. But what could one do, really?

After all, the path to hell was always paved with good intentions.

* * *

_Chorus : Withering Moon – End_

* * *

**Protip: Go back to the first chapter and re-read the last paragraph of the footnotes. Yep, three main characters and three main pairings were MR, A2, and 35. WERE, alright. I've decided to extend more chapters for more character and relationship building. Which means, it'll probably be around eleven or twelve 'Verse' until this arc is finished. Consider the 'Chorus' as an interlude or some spotlight for other characters, in this one being Cinque and Trey.**

**Just in case they went unnoticed, I'll point out that I left a lot of moral contradictions issues and plotholes in this chapter _on purpose_. I'll describe them further on the later chapters.**

**More reviews, if you would. I can only update this story with this kind of pace, unfortunately. This semester is kinda difficult yet interesting Bl. Decipher that on your own.**


	8. Verse VI : Drive of the Wildfire

**Jack Hargreaves (Also anon guest) – Sorry for the super late updating, I hope this chapter could satisfy you.**

**Regoli- TWO THUMBS UP! Don't worry, I'll try to write this story as best as possible, to live up to your amazing sketches :D**

**Sekisual- WAAAAIFUUUUU! Oh lol, how many times should we do this kind of hilarity, actually? Not that I hate it, though.**

**But yeah, Aki Toyosaki and KanaHana is amazing. If only there's Ayana Taketatsu in this game, it would be perfect :3. Either way, my favorite are still KajiKaji, SugiTomo and YouCan (or Ace, King, and Trey in this game, respectively).**

**Kunagiri- Ah, shut it man Bl I am just that fabulous and you know it. Also, *INTERNUTZ BROFIST***

**Type-0 fan – IKR!?**

**Already 2500 hits? TYVM dear readers! With 7 chapters with 49 reviews... My apologize, fellow competitors, but I'll grab the title of 'Most Reviewed Story' of FF Type-0 category for the time being. Also, disclaimer as always.**

* * *

_Verse VI : Drive of the Wildfire_

* * *

_Soundlessly, the figure got more distant and distant as she fell from the window, leaving the princess and her knight staring in shock at Qun'mi's body. Rem even needed to clamp her mouth from letting out unnecessary phrases._

_That didn't last too long, though. Since Machina Kunagiri noticed something was off, __**very **__off: With all the ruckus, why were there no guards coming to their aid?_

"_Guards!" out of sudden, the young knight shouted, surprising Rem a bit. "Guards!"_

…_Just as the worst thing he had expected, nobody was coming._

_Giving a small 'tch', Machina shifted his attention to Princess Rem, although he wasn't staring at her directly in any sort due to how much she was exposing her skin. Still didn't stop him from flustering red a little, of course._

"_Princess, c-can you get dressed now?" He politely requested, avoiding staring at her body._

_In return, Rem blushed a little at her current situation before she nodded at Machina's advice. Initiatively, the young man turned around, hiding his own blushes while at it, while the strawberry haired princess let her bodyguard's cape dropped to the floor as she grabbed her casual gown before she swiftly put it on._

_After she was sure that she felt pretty comfortable with the clothing, she brushed the long sleeves a bit before she tried to ask for his attention._

_That said try ended up unspoken, sadly, due to a loud crash that pinged their surprises. On his superior reflexes, Machina quickly grabbed his anchoring swords as he prepared himself._

"_Princess—"_

_Just like his princess', his words were cut abruptly due to a sudden surprise._

_Passing through the hall in front of their eyes was a person dressed in armor that wasn't too distinct from Qun'mi's. What differentiated this person from her was the obvious difference in their figures, the person was definitely a male to Qun'mi's female._

_And his armor as well. It was tainted with reds all over his steel armor. But from the fact that he could dash that fast, those reds didn't seem to be his blood since he looked perfectly woundless._

"_YOU-!"_

_Machina dashed out of the door-less bathing room to chase that man, but the man in Byakko armor easily outran him. No sooner, Machina was left to grieve over the differences of their speeds. He was unprepared as well, so that might play a role in that._

_Compared to Machina, Rem was probably the only one who noticed the correlation of that. That person in Byakko suit… Running from the East Wing Corridor… Covered in bloods that were probably not his own…_

…_It couldn't be…_

_The only room on that wing was the king's chamber._

_No—!_

_She quickly ignored everything as her face paled, no thanks to her imagination of the worst that could happen here. Rem quickly ran through the hall, surprising Machina even more. Thus, her bodyguard was left with no choice but to follow after her._

_As Rem drew closer to the king's chamber, Machina's face reflected the same level of horror as the young princess as he realized what caused Rem to panic._

_When they opened the door to the king's room, there was a sight that they wished they never witnessed._

* * *

Without delaying a breather, every high-ranked knight was assembled at the castle's reception hall. Seated on the center was General Zhuyu, who quickly returned from his pilgrimage as soon as he heard the bad news.

Zhuyu was generally not one to speak much, but even for someone like him, this situation demanded him to do so. Even a blind, deaf man could sense the distress and sadness of the whole attendants. From his seat, the grand general stood to initiate the conversation.

"If I may have your attention."

With that, almost all of them deluded themselves to a pregnant silence as their general rose from his seat.

"I think I need not to speak much about this. The situation already spoke for itself."

There were no responses coming from the audience, only half-hearted nods, if not pained nods.

"They ask, and they shall receive," Zhuyu claimed enigmatically. "We will reciprocate, my fellow guardians of Suzaku."

With Zhuyu's enforcement, the fires in the whole attendants' eyes were blazing with flames of determination. Those Byakko bastards asked for it, and they would not let them live this down alive for assassinating their king.

As the gallant knights of Knighthood of Phoenix roared their determinations, Zhuyu once again took his seat and that was the sign for them to begin the legit discussion on the plan that they were going to use.

…

At the exact same time, the assembly room in the Milites' Castle was occupied by the Byakko's ranks, who were discussing the same matter as well. The differences, of course, that this one was lead by their own general, General Qator Bashtar.

"And that concludes my opinion," Qator's deep voice echoed around the room. "Is there any feedback that I need to hear?"

Trey tried his best to conceal his surprise at the news. He had planned to go on another surveillance around Korushi with Cinque, but when suddenly Cid said they were going to have a meeting soon… This was what he got: Sir Nimbus had assassinated King Khalia of Suzaku.

He did not expect such a turn of event.

When General Qator had said about losing contact with Qun'mi, it never went processed in his brain. The wheels in his brain kept spinning like crazy. His original plan of pulling the least gruesome way wouldn't work this way. King Cid Aulstyne had picked the _most_ chaotic way to settle things.

"Young Trey, is something troubling you?"

When Qator voiced his opinion aloud, every pair of eyes darted over to Trey. The archer himself was caught in surprise for a moment before he reverted to his composed stature.

"It's nothing, General Qator," he spoke calmly, although he was definitely forcing it. "Please do continue the discussion. By any means, we're going to go open fire against one of the biggest country with most military forces, after all."

While most of them seemed to buy it, Qator didn't seem to. Still, the great general chose to keep that as a personal question for later on. The eye-patched general then looked all over his knights, expecting some questions should there be any.

When he was certain that nobody wanted to ask anything, he quickly continued to the main topic of assigning his strategies to his followers.

"First, I would like to station Captain Theodore on…"

…

"As you can see, Byakko's main forces are undoubtedly…"

Zhuyu stated menacingly from his seat, receiving his guardians' attention wholeheartedly.

"…General Qator, Nimbus, and Trey the Hraesvelgr. Their powers were not to be underestimated." He steepled his fingers together on the table. "Planning the countermeasures for their moves is going to be the key to our victory. I'll be quite straight, however, that it would not be an easy task for whoever get the responsibility to do so."

The whole room became silent to this. Overestimating themselves would be a suicide move to pull in this, Suzaku needed someone who would be able to handle such arduous task.

"If I may speak, ladies and gentlemen."

The whole room except for one person, indeed. This one person who wasn't even offered a seat, or invited at that matter. The one person who stood famous for his bright silver outfits, as well as being one of the Four Kings of Oriense.

Ace the Caller.

Emerging from the corner, his overcoat waved along with every step he took. When the young assassin was close enough to the crowd, he made a very appropriate stop.

"I don't mean to overestimate ourselves, and underestimate our enemies while at it," Ace crossed his arms sternly. "But consider the Hraesvelgr out of their main forces. He is not worth your time."

That earned Ace the knights' disapproval stares. One of them even almost rose from his seat to object Ace's underestimation on them. Almost.

"If I may ask, where did you get that kind of confidence, Caller?" Zhuyu quickly asked him the key question before anything else. "That kind of underestimation is unfitting."

Ace didn't budge from his position. He was unmoved as always. If any, he had a small smirk rising by his lips.

"I believe I said that he's not worth _your_ time, ladies and gentlemen." Ace emphasized, simply uncrossed his arms and let them drop to his side. "And that's simply because…"

…

"Hold it a minute, General Qator. If I may voice my opinion a bit…"

The discussion in the Milites' Castle was flowing quite smooth, until Qator brought the discussion about Suzaku's main ranks, which consisted of General Zhuyu, Great Magician Caetuna, Machina Kunagiri (which was still left unbeknownst to everyone in Byakko, only addressed as 'the Princess' Bodyguard'), and Ace the Caller.

When the topic reached about the latter, Trey quickly intervened the general's sentences.

"Please do not consider Ace the Caller as one of our main threat."

That brought everyone's surprise. The Hraesvelgr was usually pretty calm and smart, and not to pull something as idiotic as this one.

"Oh?" Qator raised his eyebrow. "Whatever brought that up, I wonder?"

The sharpshooter merely smirked at his question.

…

Ace and Trey might be standing and fighting for a different country respectively, each other's country even, but still, their mind resonated together. After all, they were warriors who knew what they had to do, what they had to fight for, and of course, just who they had to defeat.

At the same time, on their own position, they opened their mouth. Their voices would synchronize with each other if not for the fact they were pretty far from each other. For their own listeners, their statement was already enough to cross each other's name from the enemies' main ranks' lists.

"**He is mine**."

* * *

He had been buried under the royal tomb. The great King Khalia Chival had been left rest in peace in the most fitting place by himself, only watched by his only grandchild.

Rem Chival still couldn't accept this. The strawberry-haired girl sat on the ground ruefully, cradled her legs with her small arms. Everything happened so fast. There were still a lot of things that she wanted to learn from her grandfather. He was her- No, the whole Suzaku's inspiration, for everything. He had been a pillar that kept everyone at bay.

And now he suddenly passed the baton to her, where Rem could admit to herself that she wasn't really prepared for this.

A silent trail of water fell down from her eye. Luckily, she had asked Machina to leave her alone, and the bodyguard simply nodded and followed her wish, even though he was obviously reluctant to let her by herself at her current state. But he always knew it, Rem's order was the absolute order for him, there was no place for Machina to force his mind into hers.

She managed to hold all her sobbing wordless, only the tears that fell without much haiku. A little shifting and the princess wiped the tears with her sleeve, wetting it a bit. She barely cared for that kind of thing for now, she just wanted her grandfather to… smile at her again.

Which would never happen.

Rem was too lost in her impossible wish to notice someone approached her from behind. The steps were graceful and ladylike. At every step the person took, the grasses that the person passed leave any sound unheard. The tall figure stopped the moment she was close to Rem's sitting position.

"Princess," the person's voice was quite docile and soft as she called Rem. "You'll catch a cold if you sit here for any longer."

The said princess almost emitted a gasp in surprise, but the moment she recognized whose voice that belonged to, she turned around to face her. Standing before the princess was a woman seemed to be older and wiser than the princess was, yet from her face solely, she could still easily be classified as one of the most beautiful woman alive. Even though her ginger hair was tied into a small bun, her hair still emitted a warm radiance that soothed the atmosphere around them.

She was the best magick user in Rubrum- No, the _whole_ Oriense, who was also the one that taught Rem everything about magick since she was a child.

"…Lady Caetuna…" Rem quickly reverted to her strong mask, even though she wasn't exactly doing the best job in that. The princess brushed her dress a bit as she stood up to face her teacher. "My apologies, that was so unfitting of me."

Caetuna didn't speak much. She only replied with a small nod. Cue another pregnant pause as the breeze blew warmly again, until the older of two opened her mouth.

"King Khalia was a good man," she stated calmly. "He will be missed."

No, it was not some kind of compliment to ease Rem's heart, Caetuna merely voiced her opinion, which was none other the fact itself. Rem understood that very much. That was how Caetuna always lived, stood strong on her two legs with the pride of Suzaku chained tightly to her determination. Rem wished she possess that kind of heart as well. She always hoped to see the day where Khalia would smile and taught her the very meaning of that.

Or in other words, she still lacked that.

"Now, it's your responsibility, my princess." Caetuna continued, cutting Rem's train of thought. "Your words will lead our actions."

She acknowledged that.

She acknowledged that already.

But still…

Rem couldn't hide her recalcitrance. Fortunately, Caetuna seemed to be able to read her hesitancy and she approached her pupil, patting her shoulder warmly as soon as she was before her.

"As a teacher, I would like to say that I am very proud of your growth," she elicited the same warmth through her smile. "So did King Khalia, and the others. You'll soon be the strongest magick user, as well as the strongest queen alive in Suzaku."

The said soon-to-be-queen still stared at her teacher emotionless. Caetuna, in return, showed her best student the warmest smile ever. Caetuna's patting on her shoulder was soon trailed over to the princess' sleeved arm, sending another wave of comfort inside the princess once again.

"Before I can acknowledge you to best me, princess…" the teacher advised. "…There's still one more thing that I would like you to learn…"

…

Everything was calm. Everything was silent. Everything was left wordless.

Until he angrily punched the brick wall of the castle.

"Dammit!"

He couldn't find any better reason for this. Machina Kunagiri couldn't find any better reason for King Khalia's death. It was all because he was weak. It was all because he was so **damn **weak that he was forced to witness the death of someone important to him, again.

He didn't stop punching the hard wall at all. He had made sure that he was on everyone's blind spot, and nobody else would realize his presence in one of the garden's corner. Machina didn't find any reason to stop venting his own stupidity over all of this.

Because Machina was sure if he stopped doing this, he would shed tears that he had promised to not to shed anymore.

"Forgive me… Late king…" this time, Machina banged the wall so hard with his fist that it started to bleed, his head soon tilted down in regret. "If only… If only…"

If only his identity as the late prince of Byakko was found out publicly sooner. If only that happened sooner, then their target would probably be shifted to him instead of the king.

Unbeknownst to him, a certain someone was already slipping near. Ace didn't know whether Machina had noticed that he was somewhere behind the pillar around him for a while, or the dark-haired bodyguard had knew that but simply ignored him.

The blonde crossed his arms coolly. He couldn't, and wouldn't blame Machina for that. Well, he was never quite attached the king himself, but even with that kind of loose relationship, it was very easy to notice the king's kindness and wisdom. And then those Byakko bastards suddenly took his life that easy…

If he put it that way, it was partly his fault as well. Ace was supposed to be someone that Machina that could trust to keep his life safe, both mentally and physically. And as much as he hated to admit it, he had failed this mentally.

Ace didn't do anything as extreme as Machina, but he let his emotion took control of him, as one could easily tell by looking at the way he was clenching his hand in anger.

"I need to speak with you two."

A miracle actually happened. Ace and Machina, who both excelled in fighting, were actually caught by their surprises. No, they might be poured by their emotions for a while just now, but the way the owner of this voice approached them was senseless. To walk at them undetected was something that a true warrior could do, if not a true monster.

It was General Zhuyu, dressed in his well-refined armor, who invaded their privacies.

"General," Machina answered as he tried his best to revert to his original gallant stature, although it was clear that he couldn't do it as easy as he had planned.

Meanwhile, Ace almost decided to just walk out casually, but since Zhuyu definitely referred him with 'you two' just now, he made a fast stop to that plan and he decided to emerge from his hiding spot. Machina merely looked over his shoulder calmly at Ace's appearance without any sign of surprise as the said assassin once again crossed his arms in his usual cool demeanor.

As soon as Zhuyu noticed that they were calm enough, he approached them in his enigmatic pace. It didn't put any noticeable impact on Ace's and Machina's guard, but they were indeed, flinching a bit at the way Zhuyu walked to them. It was simply the matter of his fighting aura clashed with them.

And believe it or not, his was equal to theirs combined together. Should he wasn't in the same side as both of them, they would already put their weapons on.

Surprisingly, Zhuyu stopped when their distances with each other was still quite questioned. The bigger man closed his eyes calmly, letting his mouth did the work alone.

"It's not in my place to intrude this," his deep voice echoed around the garden, although the only listeners were no one but those two. "However, I'll be quite blunt about this. How long are you going to keep all of this?"

His last statement surprised both of them. No, 'surprised' was not going to cut this, they were shocked. By 'All of this', Zhuyu was definitely addressing something that they always hid. Machina and Ace were far from idiot, putting that subtle implication of Zhuyu was an easy work for both of them respectively. Especially considering that was the one thing that Machina always wanted to bury deep inside, with all of tragic memories that resounded in his brain.

Zhuyu didn't even need to open his eyes to tell the shocks that the two young warriors emitted. He merely continued his words in the similar tone.

"You did a good job hiding it all along. However, it would not work for a long time with that distinct feature of your family, Machina Kunagiri," the general stated, emphasizing on the Machina's full name. "Those hairs and eyes are too noticeable for someone who had gone through millions of battlefield."

Machina hated doing this, but unconsciously, he let out a quick gasp at Zhuyu's exclamation. Ace was still in the same state of shock to actually make even the simplest of a movement. That was Zhuyu's cue to continue.

"Everyone knew about the massacre in Byakko, Sir Machina." This time, he addressed him with his rank. "I've been more than glad to take you in our country as one of our greatest warrior."

His next question was something that the two always expected to be asked to when the day that their identities were found out.

"But in dire situation like this, even I will have to question which side you two will take."

The big general opened his eyes, emitting the pressure of a true warrior when his eyes flashed open. Furthermore, his arm soon trailed over to his back, where his gigantic axe rested peacefully. His big hand quickly gripped the big hilt, even though he didn't pull it out. Yet.

"If you are a true warrior at heart, then you'll undoubtedly choose your original country no matter how deep the country had fallen," he reinstated his battle stance, the stance that would make his enemies run with their tails between their legs. "And I praise that. It won't the change the fact that I have to dispose you two here, however."

Machina didn't move. Gritting his teeth in an unreadable expression, he let his head dropped down, and his dark hair covered his eyes with the shades that it created.

"Should you choose Suzaku, however," Zhuyu continued after a small pause confided the air. "I will need to give you proper punishments for hiding the fact that you were spies for years."

That basically meant that they were in a lost-lost situation.

It didn't even enter Machina's and Ace's ears, however. Machina's expression was unreadable, while the latter's was… unbelievably confident. The man in silver clothes only let out a condescending smirk.

"I didn't expect you to be quite a fool, General Zhuyu of Suzaku."

When Ace suddenly said that words, Machina's eyes opened in surprise, while Zhuyu's were narrowed. Zhuyu wasn't provoked, but he was wary due to something that stirred around Ace; his fighting resolution was rising as he took a step toward the bigger man.

"...Byakko…"

Another step forward.

"…Suzaku…"

Yet another step forward.

"…Or even Seiryu or Genbu…"

Ace had arrived just behind Machina's standing figure, and the Caller didn't stop his steps yet.

"…They barely matters to me."

The golden haired card-user had passed through the bodyguard, and he quickly got a good grip of his card as his other hand quickly drew the full-decks from his side.

"I am Yuuki of Byakko. I am Ace of Suzaku. I am the Caller of the Four Kings of Oriense."

His feet stopped dead in his track as he raised his weapon forward, ready to be launched in anytime at the Suzaku's greatest general. Despite the fact that he was going to fight someone who was definitely stronger than him, Ace's eyes were flickering with blazes that were so full of dedication.

"And before anything, I am always Prince Machina's blade." His statement resounded, his will of fire was burning inside of him. "Therefore, should you ever intend on harming his lordship in any way, the flashes of my cards would be the last thing you shall witness, General Zhuyu of Suzaku."

Nobody reacted to Ace's creed. This time, it was Machina who was surprised and Zhuyu who did nothing unreasonable as he stayed silent on his position.

"If it's a punishment of my prince is one thing that you seek," Ace declared. "Then come, General Zhuyu! You will not get what you seek until you pass over my dead body!"

Ace almost launched his first set of attack as Zhuyu prepared himself in defensive position. However, a soft touch on the young man's shoulder was everything that it took to stop his offense.

Of course, Machina was the only one who could do that.

"Ace," he commanded softly. "Step aside."

Ace wanted to continue his attack, but this was Machina he was talking with. Machina's words were always his commands, and it was always the most absolute one. Thus, he simply stopped all his intention on continuing his aggressive pace and he pocketed his weapon back.

Zhuyu returned to his passive stance as well, as Machina stepped in to approach the big general.

"General Zhuyu," Machina addressed back. "For now, I am unsure myself whether I am one of Suzaku's warrior as well."

His statement was not something that both Ace and Zhuyu expected, but with his next words, it was very obvious; Machina's resolution was as undying as Ace's.

"But just like my friend Ace, I do have one thing that I had always dedicated myself to for this past five years," Machina's eyes were releasing the intensity of fires of hell, albeit it was a good intentioned one. "And that is to protect Princess Rem, and I will not back down from my position until she gives me the direct order to do so!"

While Zhuyu kept silent and Ace mouthed a small 'my prince' at his exclamation, there was one thing that was obvious; both of them were moved by Machina's determination. Eminently to Zhuyu, who was actually already moved from Ace's undying oath to stay by his superior's side.

"If you want me to get out of this place, I'll have to refuse when it's not her command. Not even yours, General Zhuyu."

In contrary with Ace, Machina didn't pull any of his weapons. He simply stood there, letting his fierce determination to finish everything else. The three warriors stood wordlessly, locking their eyes with each others'.

"Then it all comes to Princess Rem."

After what seemed like forever, Zhuyu finally made a move. He simply turned around and walked out of the place, as gallant as always. He made a small comment before he left the spot for good, though.

"That means, the question shall be postponed until this whole feud is over."

With that, Zhuyu simply left the place and both Ace and Machina returned to their original statures. Surprisingly, they too didn't trade many words after that and they walked into separate directions by their own, with Ace bowing a little at Machina on the card-user's part beforehand.

For now, there was something else they had to do, preparing themselves for tomorrow's raid.

* * *

"Thanks, Mutsuki. I'll be leaving now."

"Yeah, careful out there, Ace."

As he grabbed his own portions of small bombs with his hand, he immediately pocketed those explosive things inside of his coat. With a nod, the young warrior turned on his heel to leave the small headquarters of the research unit of Rubrum's military.

"Ace!"

His intention was stopped when the smaller girl called him, though. Turning his head around, Ace quirked an eyebrow in question.

"A-after you return…" Mutsuki's face had faint blushes all over her cheeks as she fidgeted around, rubbing her overly-long sleeves together. She gulped nervously before she looked at Ace straight on his face with a full-fledged determination. "Let's make fireworks together again!"

Ace blinked in surprise at her statement. Once. Twice.

Before he laughed softly, surprising Mutsuki in return.

"Just when I thought you're going to say something else…" he chuckled, scratching his own cheek idly for a moment. After that, his arm was extended to pat Mutsuki's rather-unkempt-ponytailed hair, smiling warmly.

"That sounds fun, actually. You have my promise."

For him, it was rare to see how Mutsuki blushed, but as he did this, she pulled one, along with a genuinely adorable smile.

"Mmm!"

…

"Bodyguard."

Rem was sitting on a chair on the castle's terrace, staring idly at the deep blue sky. She hadn't been able to fully accept of all those quick paces to this whole war, but she had always acknowledged one thing: To stand on her own two legs, especially after Caetuna's support, as well as the others.

"Yes, princess?" He called back, nodding slightly. Rem stared back at her bodyguard, before she emitted a weak sigh from her small lips. Honestly, things were pretty chaotic inside of this castle right now.

First was Khalia's death, and the second was… Machina's true identity. There were so many questions in her mind right now about him now that Caetuna had told her about the young Kunagiri. She was surprised at first, but when she put two and two together… Everything came to pieces. Everything was not surprising anymore.

"Will you tell me..." she paused slightly. "…Or I have to ask first?"

Should he really be surprised about her question here? Because Machina didn't. After Zhuyu had voiced it out loud in front of his face, this was barely surprising. The dark haired man was sighing in relief, actually.

"No, not at the moment, Princess Rem." Machina stated, staring back at the princess warmly, yet still as polite as ever. "After this is all over, I will tell you many times. Until you might even get bored from it."

He had decided, he would bottle it up inside no more. Not to her.

It was not what she really wanted, but still, she could see everything in his eyes: Those unsettled business that he needed to settle soon, and how he was going to finish it once and for all. It was everything that he always strived for.

And Princess Rem loved him for that. Smiling beautifully, she then returned to gaze at the azure skies. This calm before the storm tomorrow… She was going to treasure this to the fullest.

"Then I order you, my bodyguard." Rem made no attempt to not to address him with his full name as well. "Come back to me after everything's settled tomorrow."

Her words were everything that encouraged his very dreams. His existence was everything that protected her very heart. Neither of them knew that unconsciously, their relationship was taking another step forward, a love that crossed between two legal leaders of two opposing countries.

"It is your will," Machina simply bowed, his hair smoothed along as he did that action. "My princess."

Yet, neither of them cared about those positions anymore. It was a love between Machina Kunagiri and Rem Chival, and everything was perfect by that.

…

Cinque was already asleep, everyone else was already asleep as well, only the young master of the said mansion was still left awake.

Along with the peaceful crickets of night grasshoppers, Trey sat on the couch of his mansion's living room. In his hand was a thick book, which he had been reading for a while.

_Tomorrow... huh..?_

Again, he didn't finish his book. He simply closed the book tight, deciding it was enough for the night.

Still, he didn't head for his bed straight out. He made a swift stop on the coffee table on the corner of the same room. On the said table were two pictures: His parents, who were pretty far from this place at the moment.

They were still alive and kicking, but Trey bowed his head in respect to the said picture. They wouldn't hear their only son's prayer, but he had the quiet urge to do such a thing, for he treasured the bond with his parents very much.

"Father, mother, please watch over me," the archer muttered to no one but himself. "I'll not fail you."

A silent wish had been said, and that was Trey's cue to head to his own room for a quality sleep.

* * *

The new dawn had arrived. Millions of soldiers from both countries had made their moves, lead by their respective leaders.

Today would be the day everything between Suzaku and Byakko would be settled. Victims and deaths were unavoidable, but nobody backed down from that mere reason. They were prepared to fight to their last breaths for their own victory. There were millions of steps, but those steps united into one rhyme as they moved. Still, both of their paces were unbelievably fast while still keeping their formations neat.

It had been clear. The first country to settle in that spot would have the biggest advantage in this war.

That place was none other but the borderline town of Byakko, Korushi.

* * *

**BOW WOW CHICKA WOW WOW. It takes me one full month to update this LMAO.**

**And probably would stay this way until the end of this semester orz. Worry not, though, I'll still afford to write this at any given time. R & R, my fellow brethren.**


	9. Verse VII : Calamity Trigger

**Super late update, I know. I don't really have much in my defense for the delay, except for something you can read in the bottom of this chapter. I hope you guys are still with me. Or with this fandom in general.**

**Kunagiri & type-0 fan- WE SHONEN NOW. Okay, hopefully this chapter won't disappoint.**

**Sekisual- You effing traitor. Go back to the kitchen.**

**Muddy Writer & galahad- Thank you :D. Don't worry, Ace and Deuce will make it ****in the end****. They just… need a long way for that.**

**Jack Hargreave- I take no offense. In fact, while I am genuinely happy with your expectation over me… Really, I am no man of such skill. English is second, if not third language, and I don't even have any writing class in my major. Still won't change the fact that I'll try, though. I edited the grammar errors in the last chapter.**

**As for Machina x Rem, I regret to say that I won't change it. This is how I take their romantic relationship, mainly to differentiate them to Ace x Deuce relationship. I put Machina x Rem relationship, as you can see even from the first chapter, only with mere subtle implication. Let's be a romantic for a while here; five years of loving each other from afar while recognizing their positions is more than enough for the flower of love to blossom fully. Yet, to balance it so that this epic isn't all about romance, I left their relationship as an open context, **_**as of now**_**.**

**Or maybe I just love to screw with my readers' head. Your guess. Ah, I mean no sarcasm and no offense, though. I'm going to need more constructive criticism for this chapter, as well as later chapters. There need to be more people like you in this site.**

**Unlike some losers who whined like dunces in the review, and didn't even apologize for that. *rooooooooooooooooll eyes*.**

**Mirae-no-sekai- Your PMs and review were a great help, buddy! Don't worry, things are starting to come to a piece. Soon.**

**Once again, I do not own Type-0, only the ideas for this story.**

* * *

_Verse VII : Calamity Trigger_

* * *

"Maaaaaan…"

A whine came over from behind the barstool. It was Jack, who immediately followed that whine by crossing his arms on the surface and leaned his face down on them.

"It really comes to this… huh?"

As he whined again, King, his listener stayed collected as ever. He merely sat there on a chair, sideways, and in his arms was a lute, which he had been playing calmly for a while. A quick glance from the gunslinger to the young tavernmaster, and Tomokazu let out a small grunt.

"If you want to go, just go, Jack," he advised. "Just like everyone else."

When the words had been said, both King and Jack travelled their visions away to the scenery just beyond the batwing doors of the Eleven Summit inn. The once cheery and loud sounds of the place were no more, the smiles and laughs of the villagers were no more, the only thing that existed in the place was the calm emptiness of Korushi, which would turn into a raging battlefield in no less than a day.

The corner of Jack's lips twitched into a small, content grin. Something natural that always went with him, no matter how hard the current situation was. King's advice, apparently, fell into that category within his dictionary as well.

"Nah~" Jack rose his head up. "I'm not really looking forward to leave this place this soon~"

Jack laughed his heart up, a little dryly, but that still managed to amuse King, for the gunner quickly formed a small confident smile on his face. The situation was rocky, indeed, but not something really impossible for him, for them.

The short, peaceful moment was soon put on a stop, and once again the area fell into an awkward silence. Seemed to be content with playing the lute for long, King put the instrument politely to his side, his glance now focused on the far side of the bar.

"What about you…?" The long awaited question suddenly arrived, echoing through the empty bar, directed straight to a certain direction. "Deuce?"

Jack's gaze soon followed King's, combined in an obvious mixture of worries and amusements. On the other side of the bar, sat Deuce. Although it was only the slightest, there was indeed the troubled expression beneath her usual, heartwarming expression. In front of her was a small bottle of plain water, as she didn't drink alcohols.

"Don't be silly, Jack-san, King-san," she turned her attention to her two friends. "I can't possibly leave you two here."

Jack sighed, although King stayed stiff. Deuce was as stubborn as mule, they had already long recognized that. There were never any ways for an objection to enter her mind when she was already so determined like that. Both of them still couldn't help but get worried over her, of course. She was a girl, one of the sweetest girl ever breathed in the land of Oriense, and bloods, wars, or any form of violence in general didn't really bode well with her.

"I know what you two are going to say, and no, I am staying."

After she muttered the quick sentence, she returned to her drink, maybe even pouting a little. There was no way she would leave Jack and King by themselves. Yes, by themselves, because the current Korushi had no population except the three of them. That, and…

"After all, who would be kind enough to take care of your wounds later on?"

She was only putting two and two together. Sure, she knew very well that King was strong as hell, he even had his own tale spreading over the world, albeit not as indignant as the Four Kings tale. But even him, he had been injured from the fight against thirty men. It was Deuce who had treated him back there, and she was sure she would be the one who was going to tend him later as well.

She didn't know much about Jack, though, but she could easily tell that he was a great warrior as well, no matter how much the male tried to hide it.

"For free, that is," she added playfully. The physician smiled a triumphant smile as she watched both King and Jack let out another sigh in defeat.

It was then when the batwing doors were opened again, welcoming more of the morning sun rays inside the bar. Another person entered the bar, increasing the town's population to four person. The man only approached them gently, a confident grin plastered on his lips, which they countered differently; a curious headtilt from Deuce, another grin from Jack, and… no response whatsoever came from King. Still, his arrival was more than enough to put more ease on the three Korushi inhabitants.

His silver radiances shone fundamentally, the sure victory had been promised for Suzaku.

…

The sun touched its peak, the halcyon it emitted once was no more, exchanged by an inescapable hotness that burned every soldiers throughout their heavy armors. However, that kind of ordeal wasn't even registered on the back of their minds. Their minds raced together with their footsteps, their mission was absolute, to reach Korushi before Suzaku's army.

And they succeeded. Not only a mere success, they successfully arrived from four entrances of the town. The entrances of Korushi had been quickly secured by White Tiger Order, every private quickly moved to guard the path to prevent their enemies to invade. The northern entrance, however, was probably the most secured, since Colonel Faith Alastor, General Qator's finest subordinate entered through the said path.

"Check every house!" Faith commanded gallantly. "Do not kill women or children! Obliterate the rest!"

That was exactly why he was Qator's right hand man, because he always had something like the general himself, as well as the Hraesvelgr, which was honor and justice, something which easily went unnoticed due to how brutal the rest of the army always acted. The black haired colonel had his morals, and he would die with it.

The platoons on the southern part, commanded by another commander, were way fiercer than Faith's squad. Despite the fact there were no single soul in the area, they quenched their thirsts for blood by destroying anything that they managed to see. Anything; be it trees, fences, or signposts.

It didn't take too long for them to arrive at a certain building that was the only clinic of the town. In front of it was a small garden filled with flowers and their scents. The bloodthirsty soldiers grinned at the sight. Nothing satisfied them more than destroying something so eye catchy. They just wanted to step on those beautiful herbs and flowers right now, flattening it to their roots.

They just wanted to, indeed, because it never happened.

Before they could make their first leaps, something struck inside their minds: The slightest sound of a musical instrument from the side. At first, it only entered their ears like something so soothing and peaceful, but as the time ticked on, the melody that was featured freely inside them brought them into an entirely different state.

It paralyzed their feet, robbing the will to move off their muscles. Instantly, they were struck by surprises and fears. The soldiers of the said platoons tried their best to turn their faces to the source of the melody, yet most of them were for naught, for the melodist took the initiative.

"Please, no more steps toward the garden."

Deuce rose from her seat which was the small porch just in front of her clinic, her flute in her slender hand. Her face stayed unexpressive, for once, yet it still reflected the kindness that she always had, especially through her very eyes.

"Please," she asked. "Leave."

Sadly, she questioned the wrong type of persons. She had guessed that her demand would be unfulfilled, but nonetheless, she had decided to try it. Their only responses were loud battle cries, and they quickly darted their attentions to her. The bloodthirsty soldiers didn't seem to pull any punches despite they were fighting against one, unarmed lass.

"We don't want this…"

As they started their harmonious march towards the small girl, she muttered in the frequency that was barely audible, even for her own ears.

"I…"

They grew closer to her, their weapons raised hungrily asked for a prey together. On Deuce's end, the only movement that her muscle afforded was a hand clenching, somewhat bizarre lights surrounded it. Her beautiful green eyes were covered by the shades of her front bangs as her head bent down a little.

She was already in their ranges, but she was still not moving away. She never moved even an inch from her spot. It was only a flash moment for those who were able to get a good grasp of her face, but if one focused enough, a single crystal tear was out of her eyes.

"…don't want this!"

As Deuce raised her arm, everything was bright.

…

The western entrance was invaded no less destructive. Blinded in crazed wills, the Milites soldiers destroyed anything in their path without any exception, even though every house that they encountered had no people inside anymore. They burnt the uninhabited stores and houses, obliterating every single resources for the returnee should they return to this place later.

But just like the old saying, people with bad deeds didn't go unpunished.

Two soldiers were about to wreak more havoc, yet the moment they took a step to one of the many abandoned house, that was when they couldn't feel anything else. Something flashed by them, which quickly robbed their lives out of their bodies. Something so small, yet so sharp.

Cards.

Some of those soldiers fell down right on the spot lifelessly, putting the others' guards' up. They quickly made a defensive formation while turning their direction to whoever stood just beyond the other side of the building. It was pretty easy to figure who killed their friends, though.

"Looking for someone, gentlemen?"

It was him, the only one person who could make cards very deadly, Ace. Even though the differences of number was pretty far, he was as calm as ever, sending deadly glare to every single soldiers that stood against him.

Letting out battle cries that erupted together in one loud roar, three warriors of Byakko quickly charged at him with their swords in their right hands and shields in their lefts.

A pretty bad move.

Before they could even come close to him, they fell down to the adamantine pavement, three cards pierced hard through the bridge of their noses respectively, cutting their lives right on the spot.

"Four of Spade, Four of Club, and Four of Diamond," Ace stated out loud calmly, finally making his step toward his enemies. "Three of a kind."

Ace skirted around his path, dodging incoming arrows at his direction as easy as pie. He didn't throw other cards at them, not before he successfully grasped their blind spot by gliding around gracefully against his enemies' vision, which was still pretty easy as well for him. Before long, he was already settling his position on his enemies' back.

This time, he grabbed five cards and launched it right in front of him, which pierced them right through their necks. Whether it was fate or coincidence, the five cards that he had just thrown had the same suit, which was Diamond.

"Flush."

As he penetrated their defensive formation, Ace was still concentrating himself in grabbing another ten cards that he quickly launched again, each one of the cards still directed straight around their unarmored part that was their necks. Again, the cards were forming two poker hands, special set that was already predetermined on a card game.

"Full house…" Ace crouched as ten soldiers lost their lives before him, grabbing more cards from his inventory. "…Times two."

The platoon's number was greatly reduced only in such a blink of eyes, and it kept decreasing as they stood against him. Ace danced around the battlefield, throwing his weapons at them while doing so elegantly.

"Two pair."

Two more soldiers fell.

"Three of a kind."

Another three fell.

As impossible as it was, Ace had just performed it, a one man onslaught against a squad of Byakko. It didn't take too long for him to be surrounded by a fountain of crimson red blood of dying men, tainting his silver clothes with unnecessary red liquids.

Finally the feud ended with the victory on Ace's side. The man with different armor, as Ace assumed him as their commander, was in the confrontation with Ace the last of all, although the result stayed the same. The assassin in silver coat simply orbited his five cards at the commander's body as the final impact. The cards' suit was simply in streak, from Ace of Hearts, Two of Hearts, until Five of Hearts.

"Straight flush."

Ace motionlessly said as his enemy shrieked his dying moans, bloods following straight his words, coming out from his opened mouth.

"Called game."

The unnamed commander was no more but a history now, for he, the caller had called. A careless wind breezed, closing the curtain of the one-man blitzkrieg. He soon relaxed himself, looking at the hot sky while letting out his tiredness through a single sigh.

His part was done. Time to check on the others.

…

"H-He's a monster!"

"R-Run!"

Horrified screams quickly filled the eastern entrance. Unlike the other two entrances, the said entrance was ganged with lesser troops, although only by the littlest amount.

Still, that was probably the most fortified entrance. The true guardian of Korushi, King, was nesting there. Again, unlike Ace and Deuce, he was a man of serious business. He didn't even let a single soul touched the floor of the nearest building. He simply directed his bullets to whoever tried to step further to 'his' town.

As well as those who tried to run. He didn't pull any punches. Those Byakko soldiers asked for a war, and a war it is. He merely returned their wishes.

Standing on top of dozens of dead bodies, King pulled the triggers of his guns by his fingers again. His expression was less stiff than ever, even a small grin was tugging the corners of his lips. He still remained untouchable on his standing spot.

"Rock'n Roll!"

Loud bangs permeated the air, and the sky around King was painted with the redness of bloods.

…

Faith waited for any reports.

He waited and waited, but nobody returned to him to report the progress to him, not even the platoons that he had directly ordered. Were they enjoying destroying things without any consent too much? Or were they…

Only one way to find out.

"You," the black haired colonel pointed at his right-hand man. "Go check Colonel Erialus' troops. Report back to me as soon as possible."

"Sir!"

The soldier dashed for the eastern entrance quickly. Faith didn't stop at that, though. He immediately ordered two other soldiers to check on the southern and western troops respectively. As two privates departed for their assigned missions, Faith returned his gaze to the emptiness before his eyes.

His own troops that he had commanded didn't come back as well.

Also the fact that he was yet to encounter a single enemy around made him more cautious as well.

This one was his sole responsibility. He quickly dispatched the rest of his troops to every side of the town. Now standing without any guards, he personally joined in to check the condition of his soldiers.

What weird was that he didn't find a single trace of his soldiers' whereabouts. Not until he took a closer look into a certain building.

The famous Eleven Summit.

It was not visible. It was not audible. Yet, Faith could tell that this place was the one that hold the key for him to solve all his personal mysteries, for the place reeked of mysterious auras itself. Adjusting his arm so that he grabbed the hilt of the saber by his side correctly, Faith carefully made his way through the pair of batwing doors.

"Welcome~ Welcome~"

And everything was not like he had expected.

Sitting on every chairs of the bar were his soldiers. At first glance, they seemed to be alive and kicking, partying hard even, yet with closer look, it was pretty easy to tell that… All of his soldiers were dead already, fresh bloods joking around their lifeless bodies. The only man standing and alive beside himself was the young man behind the barstool, who surprisingly grinned confidently at him.

"So~ What would you like to drink, good sir~?"

A conclusion could be easily found. The man without any single fragment of bloods on his face was definitely the one who did this to his soldiers. The young tavernmaster Jack was definitely the culprit.

Thus, Faith wasted no time to pull his saber out of its hilt. A quick swing, and it managed to cut its target into two due to its sharpness.

That, if it hit the target.

Because he didn't. Jack managed to dodge the flash slash by crouching a little. Contrary to what Faith had predicted, the young man had troubled expression as he evaded the thing.

"H-Hey, sir! Swinging that thing here is dangerous, you know!"

Still, Faith didn't buy Jack's obvious and dorky response. Instead, he performed another quick slash, which Jack managed to dodge again. Less easier this time.

"H-Hey, come on now!"

Jack's only response was a saber slash. As Faith slashed around to chase the man before him, he managed to push him to move around the whole first floor of the Eleven Summit. He was destroying everything that he passed unconsciously with his numerous slashes.

Despite that, Jack remained unscratched. The only change in his facial was that it was now painted with sweats due to exhaustion of running around.

"So, uhh…" Jack scratched his spiky yellow hair childishly. "Can we stop this now? I'm getting rather tired, sir~"

This predicament surprised Faith, but he tried to remain intact as well. He couldn't possibly show any distressed face against such enemy, especially if that person was clearly still joking around.

"Young man," he called as he set his battle stance strong again. "What is your name?"

Jack's face suddenly brightened at that question. The young man quickly winked at Faith, and even giving him a small thumbs-up. "Kenichi! Oh, Jack might works, too!"

"…I see."

Faith didn't recognize that name, not 'Jack' nor 'Kenichi'. However, that still didn't change the fact that he needed to fight him seriously, for the young man before him was one of the strongest warrior he had ever faced.

"We're done playing, young man," Faith raised his saber up, as well as burying his feet harder to the wooden surface of the bar. His eyes were emitting different tension than before. "We're ending this."

At that slight moment, Jack felt sudden chills and shivers under his bone, his eyes widened in surprise. The Byakko commander in front of him was telling no lies. His aura had just changed, he was serious.

Even though Jack's mind was telling him to dodge, he couldn't. Faith's single slash, this time, outran Jack's speed. The cold saber's sharp edge met his unarmored clothes, its pressure blasted Jack away to the bar's titanic shelves of wine bottles. Jack's pained squawk was soon buried along with his body as the bottles fell apart on him, his chest was now tattooed with a big diagonal slash mark as he stayed barren and unresponsive in a sitting position.

Faith still didn't let his guard down. He could still tell. That kind of wound was definitely not enough to make a warrior like this Jack die.

"Ow ow ow…"

Just like he had expected, Jack's whimper erupted as the young barmaster got rid of the bottles that was stacked on his head. It took him but a little time to clean himself up out of his situation. If he didn't stop suddenly as a certain bottle was by his wounded hand.

"Aww daaaamn, you've just destroyed Pop's favorite bottleship," Jack sighed as he eyed the once-amazing ship inside the bottle crumbled to pieces due to the latest impact. "Now he's going to scold me for real!"

Even for someone with patience like Faith, he still had his limit. Until how much further this young man was planning to joke around?

Not too long, in fact.

Out of sudden, the calm and soothing aura around Jack was making a dangerous turn. There were no more good winds around his bloodied figure, even though his expression still bore no offense. Another sigh from Jack's mouth was enough to make Faith to resume his stance.

"Sorry, captain," Jack said in a barely audible frequency, mistaking Faith's rank. "But I can't have you destroying my house anymore."

His deadly words were already surprising Faith's guard, but when Jack took something from the barstool and he rose from his spot, the surprise was changing into something that resembled a pressured state. What was now in Jack's hand was none other a sword, covered by a pitch black scabbard.

Jack slowly pulled the steel blade out of its sheath, throwing the latter away when the sharp sword was uncovered. Faith was a little more surprised once again, this time by the sword's shape. It was not like any other swords that he had witnessed, it didn't have the usual straight blade, instead being a little curved. The blade had surprisingly only one sharp side, as compared to his saber, which had the sharp edges on both sides of the blade.

While Faith was a little mesmerized as he scanned the unidentified sword of Jack, the owner of the sword slowly brought it up to his side, setting the man into his battle slant.

"Genji Sword Style…"

Jack's words brought Faith out of his trance, and he quickly defined his defensive stance, putting his own saber in front of him. Jack languidly spun his sword with his two hands to his other side, making a half-circle motion. The sword's shine left crescent shaped lights as it trailed to its finishing point.

"…Enhanced Forsake!"

…

"Ace-san!"

Deuce called when she noticed the familiar figure walked just past her, running up to him soon after, her first aid kit by her hands. The male in question, pinged by her call, immediately turned his head to the direction of one of his colleagues. He also quickly stopped his beeline toward the Eleven Summit inn to converse with her for a moment.

"Deuce."

"You're not hurt, are you?" she inched her face closer to the young assassin, much to his privacies. Luckily for Ace's solitudes, she shifted her head to her side a bit, smiling as she finished her quick check. "Good, you aren't, it seems."

Must this girl be so appealing this close? Because Ace swore that she was starting to rub him, in a good way.

Ace only sighed as Deuce continued her sentences. "Have you seen King-san around?"

The man in silver coat shook his head, making the physician sigh in return. A little shrug on Ace's part, and Deuce gave a slight nod to his wordless gesture. She turned around to the same direction that Ace was facing, since the Eleven Summit was that way.

That was when Ace's eyes noticed something.

"Wait a minute, Deuce."

She returned her attention to him with a slight questioning 'Hmm?' as her head rotated to stare back at Ace. He approached her no sooner, a disapproving stare emitted from his eyes.

And his arm reached for her cheek, his hand caressed it warmly.

"U-um?" Deuce felt her face grew hotter from his sudden touch, yelping a little. "A-Ace-san?"

It was not visible for him previously, but now that he had seen her full façade, the obvious difference could be easily seen. On her left cheek was none other than… a small smear of blood, whether it was hers or her enemies' was barely important for Ace.

"You were hurt?"

"N-no, not really," she answered, shyly rolling her eyes aside. "W-what is it?"

"There's a bloodstain on your cheek." Ace pointed out, carefully rubbing his finger on her red cheek.

"O-Oh?" Deuce gasped a little when she noticed what he was implying. "Is that so?"

She tried to wipe the blood from her cheek by herself, but Ace's hand wouldn't go away. It kept caressing her cheek gently. Thanks to that, at every second passed, Deuce's blushes grew more and more hazardous.

The blood was hard to erase for Ace. He could force a little power to his effort which might help in cleaning the blood, but even the intention to do that was definitely not an option for Ace. A pure face like Deuce's was not fit to be colored with the slightest of fresh red blood, and adding a strength to wipe the stain off of her face would flinch her, which would made her face uglier than that.

And it shouldn't be happening in the first place. The kindness and purity on her face were too precious to be stained with bloods. He wanted to protect them.

"Deuce."

When he called her, their eyes instinctively met.

"…Yes?"

Her response came out slower, due to how captivating Ace's gaze at her. Amazing, charming, and protective lights that captured her attention. She wanted to stay within them.

Words were slowly becoming harder to take out from their mouths, even though there was nothing else to disturb them. Only them, in the middle of an empty town. An unfamiliar spark was traded at that point through their eyes.

This was the second time things like this happened, the first one being that one occasion in her clinic.

Emotions couldn't describe, gestures couldn't explain, and even the most beautiful of words couldn't elaborate. This was a foreign feeling that only hearts could tell, much to their own acknowledgement of the said feeling. A feeling that her heart had acknowledged its existence for a long time, but she still yet to experience herself. A feeling that he never understood even from his childhood, but his heart had seek secretively from long ago.

Love.

"Ace? Deuce?"

King's sudden entrance broke them out of their anomalous reverie. Slight gasps from the two's mouths, and Ace pulled his arm back to his side while Deuce put her hands together across her chest, both taking a step back with their legs. He quickly crossed his arms as he changed his attention to the other side, and the brunette quickly addressed the biggest man of three, hoping that King didn't see any of that.

Sadly, the blushes on their faces were not disappearing all that easy.

"K-King-san, you're back! Y-You're not hurt, aren't you?"

With their sudden quirks, King could easily tell something was happening between just before he reached them. Furthermore, both of them seemed to be evading each others' eyes on purpose. King was interested on knowing what was going on, but he decided mentally that he wouldn't push this matter as of now. Instead, he only raised an eyebrow in question.

"Did I interrupt something?"

King couldn't suppress an amused smirk as he witnessed both Ace's and Deuce's face turned total red once again, even though the former was not even staring at his eyes. Deuce fidgeted, crossing her arms together behind her shyly, while Ace kept his face away, trying his best to keep his cool composure intact.

"A-Anyway!" Deuce raised her tone out of sudden, clearly trying to change the subject. "W-We need to go to Jack-san's, r-right?"

In order to not to make a shameful display of herself even further, she quickly started her pace to the inn. King let out a sigh, another way of showing his entertained expression. He turned to face Ace, who in return ignored King's amused stare and preferred to start his journey to Jack's habitat. Showing one last small smirk, King then started his own walk to the inn.

Still, the short and simple walk between them remained full of unresolved tension. Both Ace and Deuce were clearly trying to not to stare at each other and King needed to position himself between them. Quite an amusing situation King was in, but again, he decided not to word it out loud. Watching the two's behavior was more than a treat to him.

That relatively short walk was put on hold when they arrived in front of Jack's inn. The three of them, without any exception, turned a little shocked, if not horrified at what was before their eyes.

The infamous Eleven Summit inn was close enough to be called a ruin. Although the building itself still stood strong, the door, windows, and every bits of its walls were almost destroyed.

"Jack-san!"

Deuce was the first one to run inside the bar, followed closely by the two men. Pushing the batwing doors open, the healer was soon presented with shocking scenery. She instinctively clamped her mouth with her hands in response, while Ace and King merely widening their eyes in surprise.

The bar was full with dead bodies, the tables and chairs were wrecked, and just right in front the barstool, Jack's figure was crouching wordlessly, his sword rested by his side. Deuce soon noticed the huge scar on Jack's chest and she quickly rushed to his aid.

"W-What happened here?" she quickly took out bandages from her medic kit, starting her duty to heal him. "Jack-san? Jack-san?"

A small wave of panic rushed inside her. She was even terrified at first, seeing that Jack made no movement whatsoever. King and Ace, although they weren't showing it, they were clearly worried as well when they found that Jack was not showing any response.

Luckily for the three of them, Jack, out of sudden, moved his lips to laugh. Of all things.

"Owwie, owwie…" the young barmaster winced in pain. "That actually hurts a lot…"

Listening to Jack's soft joke brought them out of their fears. Ace and Deuce sighed in reliefs, and King managed a small laugh of his own, subtly jabbing Jack's shoulder with his clenched hand.

"That isn't funny at all, Jack-san," Deuce pouted as she resumed her job. "Your wounds are terrible."

Jack being Jack, kept his dorky laughs around. King, who somewhat understand Jack's sense of humor, joined the other man's laughter with his own. Deuce was already confused with King's sudden laughs, and she was getting more surprised when Ace, of all people, was laughing as well. Deuce was left to pout harder as their laughs erupted into one.

"You boys are weird."

Nonetheless, Deuce still continued on treating Jack's wound. Their random laughs were slowly fading out as time passed.

"It is time."

The young and talented assassin of Suzaku suddenly muttered as he stood again from his spot. A little surprised at Ace's sudden action, the other three's eyes fell on him in question.

"Deuce, Jack, King…" Ace emphasized on their names, bowing his head in respect for the other three. "I know simple thanks won't suffice for this, but you have my utmost gratitude. This plan will not work without your helps."

Of course, that casual and overly polite Ace's gesture brought surprises to them. Still, smiles were soon spicing their lips.

"Don't mind~! Don't mind~!" Jack was the first to respond, winking his eyes cheerfully despite his wounds. "It's been a while since I had that much fun~"

Deuce didn't approve of his wording. Frowning in disapproval, she suddenly tightened the bandage she was working on, making Jack wincing further, and even shrieking in pain.

"Ouch ouch ouch—!" he flabbergasted in pain, maybe crying childishly a bit. "M-my little Deuce~ T-That hurts- Ow!"

"It's _fun_, right?" she sarcastically commented, her pouts were yet to be gone. "Also, please stop addressing me with 'little', Jack-san. I've told you many times that I am nineteen already."

Jack made another witty comments, but Deuce merely replied by turning his treatment into a little… harsher. The somewhat funny sight brought chuckles to both King and Ace.

"Ace."

The chuckles were soon diminishing as King called for the younger man. Ace stared at King in question as the said man soon stood on his two legs as well. The Quicksilver's arm soon made its way to The Caller's shoulder, patting it comfortingly.

"It is I who needs to thank you," King smiled as he stated. "Your plan was perfect. There is indeed no single victim with it."

"What do you mean by 'no single victim', King!?"

Ace was about to smile at King's gratitude, but it soon turned into an entertained chuckle when Jack's whine suddenly interfered. King, and even Deuce, couldn't help but joined with their own chuckles.

Ace shook his head slowly, still laughing. It had been a long time since he had some fun like this, and he would savor this while he could. In fact, in the worst possibility, this could be his last.

"It was rather suicidal, I know," Ace chuckled against King. "But in the end, your abilities made it works, the three of you."

Ace's rare, warm gaze fell upon King's eyes, before it moved to Jack's, and lastly, ended up on Deuce's emerald ones. His eyes rested on hers for a bit, before Ace closed them again as he bowed once more.

"Once again, my deepest gratitude," he respectfully commented. "I'll take care of the rest. His tyranny will end soon, I promise."

"Do your best, Ace~!" Jack winked at him once again.

"We're indebted to you, Ace," King nodded back. "You can do it. I know you can."

Deuce, on the other hand, could say nothing. Her gaze was that of a worried one, which Ace replied with a plain and emotionless one. Neither of them moved. Her stare wished him to stay to prevent further injuries, but her heart knew very well that he needed to do his job. Ace's only expressed his determination to finish his job before anything else.

He regretted a bit for not being able to figure of what to say to her regarding the previous event, but he rotated on his heels to walk outside, choosing his duty over everything else. He was the master key to Suzaku's master plan. He would not stop right here just because of his personal feelings.

At every steps Ace took towards his mission, Deuce could only choke harder on her unsaid words. It was very hard for her, but she knew that she needed to do at least this. Mustering every bit of her courage, she successfully grabbed his attention by calling his name.

"Ace-san!"

Ace halted his pace, turning his head around to reply at Deuce. She muttered a small excuse to Jack, which the man nodded in agreement at, before she rose to approach the warrior in silver overcoat. As Ace turned his body to stare face to face with her again, she swiftly grabbed something from her white pocket.

"Please take this."

She grabbed his hand politely, bringing it up a little so that she could pass whatever she had on her other hand. As her hand fell on top of his for the slightest moment, Ace felt himself touching something cold and heavy; a metal.

It was a necklace, a pendant that was shaped like a pair of wings.

"It's my… lucky charm," she softly explained, the faintest blush appeared upon her cheeks. "I want you to have it."

Ace quickly turned his slightly-surprised stare at her, as if re-asking her again on whether he really could have it. It only took a small shy nod from Deuce to make him succumb to her request.

"…Lucky charm, eh?" he sighed for a moment, before a smile took its place on his lips. "I definitely need luckiness in this one. Thanks, Deuce."

Without further ado, Ace made a quick work on wearing her— his new pendant around his neck swiftly, adding another unique shine to his already shiny outfit. This prompted Deuce to smile at him again.

One last glance at the three Korushi's inhabitants, and Ace made a slight nod before he made his way out for real this time. As he walked outside, he motioned a small wave with his hand over his shoulder for them. No sooner, he was already out of Eleven Summit building, and the three of them were left to stare at his back.

Unlike King and Jack, who confidently believed that Ace could do this, Deuce felt a slight pang in her chest. She couldn't help but had a bad feeling about this.

Still, she heartily prayed for his safety. For him to be able to see her once more, after all of this were over.

…

As soon as he was outside, Ace quickly whistled, and to that, a pigeon quickly landed on his forearm. As quick as he let it landed on his arm, he let the bird with white fur flew back to its destination. No sooner, the bird was left as a small dot in the middle of the bright sky. The Caller inhaled for a deep breath.

Ace's longest day was about to start.

…

As the pigeon landed on her slender forearm, Cater's expression beamed. It went up to eleven when she noticed that the bird was the one that they had been waiting for.

"He did it! He did it!" she quickly beamed up, addressing the hiding Korushi civilians. "Ace did it!"

The once dark and silent cave was now filled with joy. The non-measurable happiness and reliefs quickly sprayed over to all of the villagers' faces, thousand of loud cheers rhymed together.

"Good," General Zhuyu took his chance to speak. Unlike most of people there, his expression stayed cool and enigmatic. "Suzakus, we will march!"

Weapons raised, spirits burning within. The fires of Suzaku were blazing, craving for their glories. The big general rode off with his chocobo, and other cavalries soon followed after him, riding their own mounts.

Machina Kunagiri was one of them.

…

"Alright, alright. These way~ These way~"

Cater and her teal-haired friend, Carla, were trying their best to guide the unharmed villagers back to their village, a platoon of soldier accompanied them as they cleared the way.

A certain man, however, still stayed in front of the cave. In fact, he was concentrating his vision at the darkness of the cave's entrance. This didn't go unnoticed by Cater.

"Miyu?"

"Go on first without me," he, Miyu, or more familiar by Eight, quickly returned her question with a dismissive wave, not even staring back at his childhood friend. "I'll join you soon enough."

Honestly, he and his attachment to this place. Cater sighed dejectedly as she returned to her job to escorting the civilians, leaving Eight by himself. He stared nostalgically long enough at the cave, before Eight turned on his heels, slowly walking to follow the others who had travelled far enough.

Time to put the result of his training in the shadow no further, for the victorious sunlight had called him to dance under it.

…

"What do you think, Hraesvelgr?"

Qator motionlessly asked Trey as he unhurriedly approached the general, his personal maid following loyally beside him. Trey soon followed his superior action from on top of the city's front gate: Watching the warriors of Suzaku forcing their way in, although they were still incredibly far from the point he was standing.

"Stronger than I've expected," he commented back, a little dryly as he glared at the hoards of soldiers. "But not something that we cannot handle, in my opinion. Sad that we lost Sir Faith, though."

A flicker of anger burned in Qator's eyes at the mention of his now-dead finest subordinate, their venomous glares rested on the Suzaku's troops. "Faith will not die in vain."

Cinque made a slight headtilt at their conversation, seemingly not able to catch on with their topics. Trey, on the other hand, was smirking a little as he elegantly pulled an arrow out of its quiver. Calmly nocking an arrow against his well-manufactured bow, he aimed his weapon at the walking mobs.

"Indeed," Trey stated his opinion, his arm stopped pulling the string and the arrow was released from the bow soundlessly. "He will not."

Even though the Suzaku soldiers were still pretty far from, his arrow successfully pierced one unfortunate's private's head.

…

Ace had his plan. Suzaku had its plan. Trey had his plan. Byakko had its plan. Others might had their own plans. But in the end, he was the only one who will laugh in the end. That much was certain.

In his private chamber, Cid Aulstyne moved a pawn on the chessboard, a cunning and devilish smirk set on his lips.

* * *

**As you can see after reading those blocks of texts, this is one of my main reasons for the late updating, except for the obvious procrastinator side of mine: Choreography of the battle scene. The moment I chose to write this epic, I already knew that writing chapter like this is inevitable, while in fact, I barely have any experience of writing one. Do excuse me if the flows of the fights aren't flowing nicely. I hope there are no major plothole in this chapter.**

**No, not Ace's/Suzaku's plan, though. I still hide it for the next chapter, although if you read over the subtle implication I've put in this chapter, you can tell the plan, moderately easy, even. Ace's battle scene was the only one with most description as well, since Deuce's/Jack's/King's full abilities will be exposed later on.**

**Another one that I must note that Faith ****IS NOT**** an OC. He is, in fact, Qator's right hand man. Japanese fandom seems to take him rather well due to his… Well, bishieness. You can check his tag in pixiv by "****フェイス大佐****"****. Personally, he's my favorite Byakko, while his superior come close in second place.**

**I am totally not ashamed of using my one of my favorite video game's name for a title of this chapter. Totally not. BlazBlue is a great game, play it if you haven't.**

**Lurkers/anons, by any means, please review. I'll emphasize it again. PLEASE REVIEW. No, not because I need more reviews, but because I need to know how much of you still lurks this fandom in this site. Because if the category here is already died down, I'm going to continue posting the next chapter of this story on other, better site that I've just recently found. **

**Nobody comments about King's Rock 'n Roll, k. It's fucking canon, brah.**


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